England captain Owen Farrell available for start of Rugby World Cup after red card overturned

LONDON (AP) — England captain Owen Farrell is available for the start of the Rugby World Cup after his red card against Wales in a warmup game was rescinded by a disciplinary panel on Tuesday.

Farrell was sin-binned for a dangerous tackle on Taine Basham that was later upgraded to a red card in the second half of England’s 19-17 win at Twickenham on Saturday.

The flyhalf appeared before an independent judicial committee via video link and denied the tackle was worthy of a red card, while accepting he committed an act of foul play.

The committee said upgrading the offense to a red card was wrong because of the “sudden and significant change in direction from the ball carrier.”

“In the committee’s opinion,” it said, “this mitigation was sufficient to bring the player’s act of foul play below the red card threshold.”

The committee did not uphold the red card and said Farrell was free to play again immediately.

Farrell could have faced a mid-range sanction of a six-week suspension, which would have ruled him out of some of England’s pool-stage matches at the World Cup in France starting Sept. 8.

England’s opening game at the World Cup is against Argentina on Sept. 9.

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby