‘We’re not doing it on purpose’ – England react to Billy Vunipola’s red card

England head coach Steve Borthwick couldn’t hide his disappointment after his side suffered a 29-10 loss to Ireland in their Rugby World Cup warm-up at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Saturday.

The big talking point after the match was the red card issued to England number eight Billy Vunipola, after he was initially yellow carded for a dangerous tackle on Ireland prop Andrew Porter.

However, the card was upgraded to red after it was reviewed in the bunker and it comes after England’s captain and fly-half Owen Farrell was also sent off in last weekend’s 19-17 win over Wales at Twickenham.

There was a huge outcry following that incident after Farrell’s red card was downgraded earlier in the week but World Rugby have appealed that decision.

Important to play with 15 players against Ireland

And Borthwick revealed that he told his players the importance of having a full compliment of players for the full 80 minutes against Ireland.

“We spoke before the game that they’re the number one side in the world and you want to be at 15 men,” he told Prime Video. “You’ve got to be at 15 men.

“Clearly we need to go through the process with Billy Vunipola.”

With Farrell set to face an independent panel again on Tuesday, the last thing Borthwick wanted was one of his other players to be sent off for a similar offence, but that’s exactly what happened and their disciplinary issues have now increased ahead of their upcoming Rugby World Cup campaign in France.

“We’ve talked about the disruption, so there’s going to be another week of disruption,” said Borthwick. “We knew that was coming already and it’s now been amplified by the situation with Billy.

“With 15 men on the field, there was a tightness in the game but when it went to 14 men we certainly struggled.”

Borthwick said there is plenty to work on for his side ahead of the World Cup, especially their disciplinary issues although it is something which received plenty of attention ahead of the clash with Ireland.

“We certainly put a large emphasis upon discipline and upon safety,” he explained. “We have had plenty of conversations about that.

“What we need to do is ensure that we take that incident in isolation, but we also need to ensure that the penalty count away from that tackle area also decreases.

“We gave penalties away for offside and different things that put us under enormous pressure.”

England’s captain in the loss to Ireland, Courtney Lawes, echoed Borthwick’s sentiments and said it was difficult to play with 14 men for most of the second half.

“What can you do really? You’re just thinking the next job, that’s what we were doing all game,” he explained. “We never gave up and that is something to take away.”

The 34-year-old said it’s difficult to control their tackle technique in the heat of battle.

“People aren’t doing this on purpose,” said Lawes. “It’s not a question of ‘oh, we need to tackle lower’ because it’s a split-second decision and things happen.

“People want to get on the front foot and unfortunately mistakes like that happen. It is going to continue being part and parcel of the game.

“The only thing you can do is get on with it, don’t let your head go down.

Wary of concussion issues

The veteran blindside flanker says he is wary of concussion issues when making tackles but it’s a difficult situation to manage.

“I don’t usually hit too high, but that’s not how everyone tackles,” added Lawes. “Obviously, we’ve got to try and make the sport safer for everyone who plays and that’s why sanctions like this are put into place.

“We’ve got a red card for it today, but what more can you do? We’re not trying to hurt each other and, sometimes with split-second decisions, mistakes happen.”

Vunipola is the only specialist number eight in England’s squad and if he is suspended after his red card against Ireland, he is set to miss his country’s World Cup opener against Argentina on September 9, but that is the least of Borthwick’s worries at the moment.

“Right now is not about looking through all those eventualities,” he added.

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