Owen Farrell is free to lead Englandâs assault on New Zealand after escaping any disciplinary action for his controversial tackle against South Africa.
World Rugby has confirmed there is no citing arising from the 12-11 victory at Twickenham on Saturday, clearing inside centre Farrell to face the All Blacks next weekend.
Farrell stopped Andre Esterhuizen with a shoulder-led tackle to the chest without wrapping an arm around the Springboks centre, but Australian referee Angus Gardner declined to award a kickable penalty.
It took place in extra-time and had Gardner acted, South Africa would have been given a last-gasp opportunity to win the opening Quilter International.
Citing commissioner Keith Brown had until 24 hours after the final whistle to trigger disciplinary action, but decided the challenge did not meet the required threshold of being a red-card offence.
England will be relieved to have available a player described by Eddie Jones as the teamâs âspiritual leaderâ, but the incident has polarised opinion as the sport continues to tie itself in knots over its crackdown on dangerous tackles.
Owen Farrell nails the penalty to win it for England.
World Rugby has instructed officials to punish such offences severely in an attempt to reduce the number of head injuries, but a lack of consistency is undermining the process.
South Africaâs management were furious at Gardnerâs failure to act, their coach Rassie Erasmus praising the challenge at the post-match press conference in an answer laced with sarcasm.
Former international referee Jonathan Kaplan â a South African â declared Gardner made the wrong decision, adding that Farrellâs âarm wrapping around is an afterthoughtâ.
Farrell himself insisted there was no case to answer, however.
âIt went to the touch judge, he said âcheckâ and then it all slows down. Sometimes you can take what you want from it,â Farrell said.
âIf you watch that at full speed, he has a big run-up on me and we both bounce off each other and end up on the floor.
âItâs hard to wrap your arms around when youâre both hitting each other at that much force, but I tried to.â
When asked if he had wrapped enough arm around Esterhuizen, Farrell said: âThatâs what the referee said and thatâs what is most important.â
England wing Chris Ashton felt the decision could have gone either way, Jones had âno ideaâ if his co-captain would face subsequent disciplinary action while Ben Teâo described the tackle as legitimate.
âIt was a legal hit. Sometimes when a big shot is made on the chest, the head whips back,â Teâo said.
âIt can look bad in real time, but when you slow it down itâs a chest shot. He had his arm to wrap, so it was a legal hit.
âOwen almost knocked himself out! Thatâs Owen â he plays with a lot of passion and he really wanted to finish with a win, so it was a big shot.â
Apart from the late drama, Farrell was an inspirational presence who propelled England to victory through force of will as a remarkable defensive performance morphed into series of frantic attacks.
At the heart of the fightback was Saracensâ playmaker, who showed steely resilience to recover from an thunderous earlier tackle by Esterhuizen.
âOwen was intense. He really wanted it so bad. He was banged up and was struggling to get through that, but he soldiered on,â Teâo said.