England’s flanker, Tom Curry, will be absent from the national team’s next two World Cup matches – against Japan and Chile – following his red card in their opening pool match against Argentina last Saturday.
Curry acknowledged that his tackle on Argentina’s Juan Cruz Mallía warranted a red card at his disciplinary hearing on Tuesday and was handed a three-match ban, which will be reduced to two provided he attends “tackle school”.
Curry, who is 25 years old, has become the fourth English player to be sent off since March when he tackled Mallía in the third minute of the match.
It was Curry’s first appearance under Borthwick and his first match since late May after he suffered an ankle injury over the summer.
He accepted that he had committed a red-card offence at the hearing and saw an initial six-week suspension mitigated down to three weeks, and then two weeks, with the RFU confirming that Curry will attend a Coaching Intervention Programme instead of missing a third match.
World Rugby confirmed that “The player accepted the red card and was suspended for two matches (subject to completion of the Coaching Intervention Programme).
The independent Disciplinary Committee was chaired by Adam Casselden SC (Australia), joined by former players John Langford (Australia) and Jamie Corsi (Wales).
The player accepted that foul play occurred and that the offence warranted a red card.
The Committee noted that the offence carries a mandatory minimum mid-range sanction (six matches), and having considered the mitigating factors, including admission of foul play and correctness of the red card at the first opportunity, an exemplary disciplinary record, an apology to the player and good character, reduced the sanction by the maximum mitigation of 50 per cent.”
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George Ford’s kicking proved pivotal as England posted a remarkable 27-10 Pool D victory over Argentina at the Stade Velodrome, despite the early dismissal of Curry.
Curry is the third England player in a month to be red-carded and serve a ban.
Curry’s clash with Cruz Mallia was initially expected to remain a yellow card, but the TMO Marius Jonker upgraded it to red, which surprised most of the audience.
Curry clattered into his opponent head-on-head, causing Cruz Mallia enough damage that he departed the field covered in blood, and would fail his Head Injury Assessment (HIA), thus remaining off – like Curry – for the remainder. However, Curry also wrapped with both arms and seemed to accidentally make contact with his head as Cruz Mallia fell into him at pace too.
What did for Curry was that he was always high in the collision. He never changed his tackle height, came from a distance, and had a clear line of sight.
With World Rugby hot on head contact in the sport at present, it was a red card by the letter.
Curry is lucky in that the games he is missing are vs Japan – who, with their current form, England would be confident of beating anyway – and vs Chile, who Curry likely would not have faced in any case. The 25-year-old will be back for England’s final Pool D clash vs. Samoa and then the knockouts.
It does make clear, though, that should a player receive a red card in the final round of pool games, they will likely miss the quarter-finals and the semi-finals – a high price to pay, and then some.
In terms of England’s next options, they do have Billy Vunipola available again following his two-game ban, and he will likely come straight in at No 8, potentially shifting Ben Earl to openside.
Lewis Ludlam and Jack Willis are also options available to Steve Borthwick.
