Warburton's disbelief over Farrell

Former Wales captain Sam Warburton reacted in disbelief when Owen Farrell was cleared of committing a red-card offence.

Warburton, who has huge respect for Farrell as a rugby player and person, insisted there is "simply no mitigation" that should have resulted in him escaping a ban.

Writing in his Times column, he said: "The furore over Owen Farrell’s tackle against Wales last weekend takes me back to the 2011 World Cup and my sending off in the semi-final against France for a tip tackle on Vincent Clerc.

"That was totally unintentional on my part. It spiralled out of my control mainly because Clerc was a lot lighter than me, but I still received a red card and a three-week ban. At the time I said it was a red card, but I actually thought it was a yellow, but as time has gone on, I’ve realised that rules are rules, and by the regulations at the time it was a red card.

"So, I could not believe it when I heard on Tuesday that the red card given to Farrell by the new 'bunker' system on Saturday had been overturned."

Warburton has sympathy for the split-second decisions players have to make in the heat of a Test match but maintained Farrell "knew the type of tackle he wanted to make", aiming for Basham's upper body and chest area. That was always going to come with a risk.

Most of his frustration is directed towards the inconsistency in officiating and disciplinary procedures, with the new bunker system that upgraded Farrell's card to red now undermined and other decisions in recent matches also causing confusion.

He added: "It is the lack of consistency that irks. It also undermines the bunker system immediately, which is disappointing because I thought that worked really well on Saturday and speeded things up.

"It also highlights to me a worrying lack of consistent thinking among officials at the moment — we saw that with Louis Rees-Zammit’s near try against England in Cardiff recently, where the referee and television match official were obviously at odds with what they were seeing and what the decision should have been.

"It is worrying when the decision goes to the truck, where the official has more time and more angles to consider a decision, and then they get overruled. All that just adds to the confusion when everyone is not synced up."

Warburton's comments come as World Rugby are set to appeal the decision to rescind Farrell's red card in a dramatic late twist.