However, Farrell argued that the offence was worthy of only a yellow card and the independent judicial committee agreed.
"After reviewing all the evidence... the committee concluded that the Foul Play Review Officer was wrong, on the balance of probabilities, to upgrade the yellow card issued to the player to a red card," the committee said in a statement.
In the Committee’s opinion, this mitigation was sufficient to bring the player’s act of foul play below the red car threshold.
Unlike the Foul Play Review Officer the committee had the luxury of time to deliberate and consider, in private, the incident."
The bans that are being put in place for foul play are not stringent enough.
Persons:
Owen Farrell, Farrell, Taine Basham, Basham, Alix Popham, ” Popham, “ Farrell, Mitch Phillips, Pritha Sarkar
Organizations:
Wales, Saracens, Ireland, Argentina, Thomson
Locations:
England, Wales, Fiji, Japan