After a long drawn out process, it was finally confirmed yesterday that Owen Farrell will serve a four-game suspension for the red card he received in the England's win over Wales a couple of weekends ago.
The saga surrounding his potential ban has been a bizarre one. It seemed clear that he would miss some of the upcoming Rugby World Cup as a result of what was a very poor tackle in the Welsh game, with some anticipating that he could even miss all of the pool stages. However, the Six Nations disciplinary committee opted to overturn the card and allow him to return with immediate effect.
World Rugby would soon appeal that decision, leading to yesterday's outcome.
It was a strange sequence of events, one that has led to plenty of questions about the use of such processes in rugby. While the right decision was eventually come to, some believe that the questions need to be asked about how they got there.
Clive Woodward slams rugby authorities over Owen Farrell ban
Owen Farrell will miss the two most important games of England's World Cup pool stage, being unavailable for the fixtures against Argentina and Japan. That will be a big blow to a team who are in the midst of a very poor run of form.
Writing for the Daily Mail, former England coach Clive Woodward said that the right decision had ultimately been reached on this occasion. However, he would slam the rugby authorities for the way it was handled, including in the hours long delay in announcing the final decision after yesterday's hearing.
Owen Farrell's ban of four matches was confirmed on Tuesday night and it was the correct outcome.
But the way it has been reached has been absolutely farcical for him, England, and rugby as a whole. I feel really sorry for Farrell as he has been personally attacked needlessly throughout this saga...
The four-match ban includes last weekend's warm-up defeat by Ireland - rightly, in my opinion - so Farrell won't be able to play in the final preparation game against Fiji and the early stages of the tournament in France. But he undoubtedly still has a key role to play for England.
He must still go to the World Cup as skipper. Had he been banned for six weeks, I might have had a different view. In all likelihood, he will also come straight back into the team when available...
The other point I'd like to make is the ridiculous amount of time it took for Farrell's ban to be made public.
He appeared in the dock early morning on Tuesday. Why did it take all day to make the public aware? Rugby needs to move far, far quicker on these things - especially when the decisions are affecting the game at the highest level.
Despite England's recent struggles, there is still every chance that they could make a decent run at the World Cup. They find themselves on the easier side of the draw, meaning they would avoid any of the top four teams in the world (Ireland, New Zealand, France, and South Africa) until the semi-final stage should they advance that far.
A win against Argentina would be a good start to achieving that goal, although they will have to do so without Owen Farrell.
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