Borthwick talks Owen Farrell appeal, hits out at personal abuse

England boss Steve Borthwick has spoken for the first time about the outcome of the Owen Farrell independent disciplinary hearing. His English team captain was cleared on Tuesday to continue playing with immediate effect after his red card last Saturday versus Wales in the Summer Nations Series was rescinded and downgraded to yellow.

However, it has now emerged that World Rugby have appealed the decision of the independent judicial committee and the matter will be revisited next week.

In the meantime, Borthwick took the decision to exclude Farrell from his match day 23 for this weekend’s game versus Ireland, citing the amount of training time that his player lost on Monday and Tuesday as the reason.

Having since confirmed an England team that shows six changes from last weekend in London, Borthwick has now addressed the media about the ongoing Farrell situation after flying into Dublin with his team on Thursday evening.

Speaking at the Conrad Hotel located a seven-minute walk away from World Rugby HQ on Dublin’s southside, he said: “Regarding the ongoing disciplinary matter with Owen Farrell, unfortunately given the disruption to his week, the intrusion in terms of his preparation, I made the decision to pull him out of the team that he would have otherwise led this weekend.

“The situation is one I find really disappointing. We thought we had reached a conclusion in this matter on Tuesday. It had an impact in terms of the disruption for this week, now it is going to be ongoing into next Test week (versus Fiji at Twickenham on August 26).

“The situation with the England team and Owen, in particular, seems to be amplified. The commentary around it seems to move from an issue around the tackle to personal attacks on the character of the man. It’s just wrong.

“Owen has handed himself through this process in a really respectful manner. We respect the process and thought we had reached the conclusion of it. We will continue to respect the process and the decision that is reached.

“Owen was due to play in this game on Saturday, We are very fortunate to have other leaders such as Courtney who has led the team before and will lead the team on Saturday.

“Owen was due to play bit having such a disrupted preparation, missing elements of Monday, missing all of Tuesday’s training many I had to take him from the 23.”

Asked why Farrell has been the subject of personal attacks, Borthwick continued: “You would have to ask the people who are writing the commentary around this. I think this move from a tackle in a split-second decision to commentary around his personal character is wrong.

“He is a teammate, he is a member of our squad, he is the captain of our squad and we all feel for him, we all feel when one of our group is on the receiving end of such personal attacks, we all feel it. Owen has conducted himself brilliantly throughout the week.

“It is going into next week. The final two Test weeks of our Rugby World Cup preparations have been disrupted by this matter. We respected the process fully, one of the most senior and experienced panels that deals with these matters dealt with it on Tuesday, went through a full hearing procedure and came to an answer that we thought was a conclusion.

“Now the situation is that another panel is being convened to try and find some holes in what was done on Tuesday. What are we going to do? Conduct ourselves in a manner that respects the process and we will continue to do that.”