The Teflon 10. Yet Another Free Pass for the Reckless Farrell

      

So Owen Farrell, The Teflon 10, dodges yet another sanction for a dangerous, head-high assault.  Nothing sticks to this guy. It wasn't a tackle as, by the very definition, he failed to make any attempt, once again, to use his arms in the contact situation. He merely drives his shoulder into the attacking player, with considerable force, after adjusting his position, lining him up and then BANG!! What is it that Farrell has which allows him a get out of jail free card each and every time he does this? It certainly isn't his bubbly, sparkling personality. The dour Yorkshireman does not have a personality, unless posturing, flexing and snarling take your fancy.. 

The ruling by the disciplinary committee would be laughable if it wasn't simply blatant bullshit.  They have said the contact was mitigated by the fact that Jamie George (I think) steers the player into Farrells path. Bullshit. By the time Farrell makes contact with his shoulder to the head of Basham, George was not even touching Basham with enough force to move a 90kg man. Farrell clearly moved to line up the hit, and anyway, even if all the crap the committee spouted up to that point were true, there can be no mitigation in the fact that, once again, Farrell made zero attempt to use his arms in the tackle attempts. Doing that, making contact with the head, with force, is an immediate red card and a standard 6 week ban. 

So lets look at the decision to overturn the red card, thus saving Farrell's arse, AGAIN!!

This committee falls under the auspices of the Six Nations. In November 2022, Pieter-Steff Du Toit (PSDT) was given a red card on the field for dangerous head contact with the French player at a ruck, during the clean-out. No argument. Lets look a the scenario. PSDT is stumbling after catching a leg. He is then bound onto by another Saffa, who then propels PSDT into the contact. He is merely a passenger and can do nothing to stop his direction or momentum. He then makes contact with the French player and is red carded.  At the hearing, run under the auspices of the very same fucktards which had oversight of Farrells hearing, the committee took no notice of the mitigating circumstances of the collision and handed Du Toit a 3 week ban, effectively ending his tour. How is it possible, a mere 9 months later, for the rules of engagement to be different? Saffas get bad press about always calling "conspiracy" but these types of fuckups do little to appease anyone, and everything to fuel the fire.

So that's the mitigation of the action bitch-slapped down!! Now what about the actual tackle. We are all acutely aware that any form of contact by the tackling player with the ball carrier's head is an absolute no-no. Varying forms of severity of contact, from mild to severe, are used to gauge sanction. From a mere penalty, to a straight red card. The worst is to have contact straight to the head with a high degree of force, such as a shoulder, head or forearm. It is a further aggravating factor if the tackler does not wrap, or at least make a solid attempt, to wrap his arms around the opponent. Each of these in isolation, could be seen as a red card offense. Farrell had every box ticked here on the negative side. Lined up the opponent, drove into an upright ball-carrier with force, used his shoulder, and made no attempt to wrap his arms in any way, shape or form. How can this be anything but a red card at the high end of the danger scale? It can't, and this one incident has galvanized the rugby world like I have never seen before. Everyone thinks this decision is a corrupt one and Farrell has, once again, been given a free pass. Even the majority of England fans commenting on socials have said this is shocking. There are always those twats who will defend the home boy, no matter what, but they are in the vast minority this week, and no one takes them seriously anyway.

We need consistency in the game and we are, dangerously, heading in the wrong direction.