Owen Farrell has been cited for a dangerous tackle which could see him miss the start of England's Six Nations campaign.
The England fly-half will now go before a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday evening to discover if he will be hit with a ban. Having been cited for dangerous tackling, contrary to World Rugby Law 9.13, Farrell would be looking at a starting point of at least a mid-range punishment of six weeks given he made contact with the head area of Gloucester's Jack Clement.
However, mitigation could see the ban reduced. In 2020, Farrell was banned for five weeks for a similar infringement, escaping a 10-match suspension because of good behaviour, with even his "work for charity" mentioned by the disciplinary panel. Undergoing World Rugby’s coach intervention programme would also take a week off whatever ban he might receive.
Minutes before dropping the winning goal in Saracens' win over Gloucester on Friday night, he made contact with the head of Gloucester forward Clement. The incident went unpunished during the match, with some confusion over whether referee Karl Dickson could act upon the intervention of TMO Claire Hodnett.
England's new defence coach Kevin Sinfield, speaking before Farrell's high tackle, has already stressed the importance of tackling lower.
“I agree [with high tackles resulting in red cards] - quite rightly they are,” Sinfield said. “Tackle height is something we worked on for a long long time at Leicester.
“There is mitigation in some of these but ask anybody who worked with me at Leicester and they will understand that they’ve been coached to tackle low. The sooner we can educate, develop and work with younger players on tackle height, it makes the game safer for everybody. My first role as a coach is to provide as safe an environment as I can. That includes how we practise tackling.
“Everything is a balance. You run the risk if you tackle high of getting it wrong. I’d much rather we tackle low rather than a) somebody getting hurt or b) us losing somebody.”
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