Farrell to miss opening two matches at RWC after World Rugby’s appeal

England skipper Owen Farrell is set to miss two games at next month’s Rugby World Cup in France.

Farrell was originally cleared to play with immediate effect last week when the verdict from his independent disciplinary hearing emerged over his red card in the August 12 Summer Nations Series win over Wales.

Farrell was initially yellow-carded at Twickenham for a dangerous tackle on Wales player Taine Basham but the decision was soon upgraded to a red card on review by the TMO bunker.

The judiciary downgraded that sanction three days later to a yellow card, freeing Farrell to play on without a ban.

However, World Rugby last Thursday decided to exercise its right of appeal and that resulted in the case getting re-heard on Tuesday by a different judicial committee.

The verdict has since emerged and Farrell has been banned for four matches – the final two games of England’s Summer Nations Series versus Ireland and Fiji and the opening Rugby World Cup pool matches versus Argentina and Japan.

England will take on the Fiji Water Flying Fijians at 2.15am this Sunday at Twickenham Stadium in their last RWC warm-up match.

England’s first RWC pool match is against Argentina at 7am on the 10th of next month.