England's Owen Farrell to miss two games at World Cup after copping four-match ban

Farrell will be unavailable for the crucial Pool D matches against Argentina and Japan, with this month's warm-up games against Ireland and Fiji also included in the suspension.

World Rugby had appealed against the decision of a disciplinary panel to downgrade Farrell's red card for a high tackle at Twickenham on August 12 to yellow.

A furious outcry greeted the verdict that the Saracens fly-half's shoulder-led challenge to Taine Basham's head, which caused the Wales flanker to fail an HIA, was a sin-binning offence only.

The appeal committee found that the original hearing had not considered Farrell's failure to wrap when attempting the tackle, which had formed a key part of the bunker review system's analysis when upgrading from yellow to red.

On this basis it was decided to hear the case afresh and after a video hearing that began the morning and finished early evening it was decided that a sending-off was the right outcome because the hit on Basham was 'always illegal'.

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