England captain Owen Farrell has been ruled out of the opening two games of the Rugby World Cup after his red card in his side's recent warm-up friendly with Wales on August 12.
The 31-year-old was initially cautioned for a high tackle on Taine Basham before his punishment was upgraded to a red card upon a bunker review.
A disciplinary panel rescinded Farrell's red card earlier this month due to mitigating factors, but World Rugby lodged an appeal against the decision, and the 31-year-old sat out England's loss to Ireland at the weekend as he awaited the outcome of the process.
The Appeal Committee spoke to Farrell as part of the hearing, and upon review, the England captain's sending off has been reinstated, and he will now serve a four-match ban.
Farrell risked a six-game suspension for his high tackle, but his "acceptance of foul play, clear demonstration of remorse and his good character" was taken into account, and England's recent loss to Ireland - which he was absent for - has been included as part of the ban.
As a result, the Saracens fly-half will miss England's final tune-up match with Fiji on August 26, and Steve Borthwick will also do without his skipper for their first two World Cup pool games against Argentina and Japan on September 9 and 17 respectively.
"Following an initial Disciplinary Committee hearing for Owen Farrell, who received a red card during the Summer Nations Series match between England and Wales on Saturday 12th August, World Rugby lodged a formal appeal against the Committees' decision to downgrade the red card to a yellow, appealing for the red card to be upheld," a statement from England Rugby read.
"The Appeal Committee met on Tuesday 22nd August and unanimously determined that in the original hearing the Disciplinary Committee should have considered the attempt of the player to wrap his opponent in the tackle. This point did not feature in the original decision.
"Following the review by the Appeal Committee of this key element, it was determined that the FPRO was correct in his decision leading to the red card. The Appeal Committee subsequently determined that the tackle was 'always illegal'. When applying the terms of World Rugby's Head Contact Process, no mitigation can be applied to a tackle that is 'always illegal'.
"The Appeal Committee therefore considered that the Disciplinary Committee's decision to downgrade the red card to a yellow card had been manifestly wrong, which led to the Disciplinary Committee's decision being overturned, the appeal brought by World Rugby being allowed, and the red card upheld."
Following news of Farrell's suspension, England are expected to hear the outcome of Billy Vunipola's own disciplinary hearing on Wednesday after the 30-year-old also saw red for a high challenge on Ireland's Andrew Porter on Saturday.
Farrell will be eligible to return for England's third Pool D match against Chile on September 23 before Borthwick's men close out the section against Samoa on October 7. body check tags ::
