OWEN FARRELL HAS escaped a ban for a high tackle on England team-mate Anthony Watson in Saracens’ Premiership final victory over Bath on Saturday.
England fly-half Farrell escaped punishment during the showpiece at Twickenham for an incident in the second minute in which Mako Vunipola went low in the tackle to Watson, while Farrell made impact with the Bath full-back’s chest and head.
Watson tried to continue but six minutes later left the field to be assessed and was not able to return. During that time Farrell had already scored Saracens’ first try on his way to a man-of-the-match performance in a 28-16 victory.
https://vine.co/v/ehBgF1I9Udh
Farrell later stated that he apologised to Watson for the tackle, while Bath coach Mike Ford thought referee Wayne Barnes should have produced a red card.
A statement from the Rugby Football Union confirmed that Farrell will not receive a ban, though, instead hitting him with a Citing Commissioner Warning, leaving the 23-year-old breathing a sigh of relief with England set to host the Rugby World Cup later this year.
If a player is issued three warnings they are subject to disciplinary proceedings, but Farrell has not received enough foul play yellow cards or Citing Commission Warnings to face punishment. Bath’s Rob Webber was also handed a warning for tackling a jumper in the air during the same match.
Farrell told BBC Sport: “I apologised to him [Watson] after the game and told him there was no intent. He was pretty down.
“I feel bad that Ant had to go off but there was no intent from me and there never would be in that situation.
“I’m not that type of player. Things like this happen in rugby.”
Bath head coach Mike Ford felt Farrell should have received a red card for the tackle.
“It was an illegal challenge square on the nose and we lost one of our best players,” said Ford.
“The other guy stayed on and got man of the match.”
Saracens ran out 28-16 winners at Twickenham with Farrell scoring 18 points.
Less of the chat about the attendance and more about the great game that evolved in the most awful conditions. Hats off to the players. Tremendous commitment shown.
The pubs and hotels in Dublin must have been hoping for a Limerick win today. 35 or 40 thousand Limerick fans would have made a weekend of it in the capital for the final. The same doesn’t apply to KK as they are there nearly every year.
If 30-40k Kilkenny fans went to a game that would be about 50% of the population. So probably a 25-30% of the population is not half bad turn out!
Show me the stats to back that up or are you just another anti Kk griper?
I’m not anti KK in any way. If u read my contributions on other threads relating to today’s match u would see that. It’s just perfectly understandable … What’s rare is wonderful – in recent decades Limerick average one all Ireland appearance every 8 or 9 years. For Kilkenny it’s almost as common as Christmas.
Not even 50,000 at today’s game!!!
Wayne – u are aware that finals always attract larger attendances than finals?! People living abroad, those struggling financially etc will come for finals where it wouldn’t be realistic (or affordable) to come for semi also. Strange comment …
* finals always attract higher attendance than semis
Wow really thanks for that nugget of wisdom! 190,000 population between today’s 3 counties, and then neutrals! I was there today and I’m a Dub. Attendances down so far this summer by 50-60 thousand across all games.
GAA should be looking at free kids tickets for weaker hurling countys for days like today. Or hold today’s game in Semple instead reducing costs for fans
U were there today, congrats … it probably cost u approx €35 between ticket and getting bus/luas. Treble that amount at least, for someone travelling from Limerick or a few hundred €€ if the wife and kids were with u … Get real Wayne !
Pay attention and read what I suggested 42,000 today, would Semple not have been a better location?
Semi finals and finals always take place in Croke Park. As a Dub u should know that – Teams and their fans know that … If today’s game had been in Thurles the attendance would maybe have been bigger .. But only marginally.
& the costs to the fans attending would have been??? Lower :)
Send an email/write a letter to Peter McKenna or Sean O Neill and ask them to put the hurling semi final(s) on in Thurles and let me know how that works out for u ….
Limerick (City & County) alone has a population of over 160k, so the 3 counties together would have a lot more than 190k. Saying that I was a little disappointed with today’s attendance, 16k down on last year’s.