England 'to wait and see' if red-card Farrell misses World Cup start

England captain Owen Farrell seems set to miss the start of the Rugby World Cup after being sent off in a 19-17 warm-up win over Wales at Twickenham on Saturday, although coach Steve Borthwick cautioned against pre-empting the disciplinary process.

Flyhalf Farrell's yellow card for a shoulder-led tackle to the head of Wales replacement Taine Basham in the final quarter was soon upgraded to a red by the newly-introduced bunker review system.

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And that left England down to 12 men following the yellow cards already shown to Ellis Genge and Freddie Steward.

Despite that handicap, and falling 17-9 behind, England still won after lock Maro Itoje was driven over for a converted try and replacement George Ford kicked a late penalty.

But any joy among England fans at their side's resilience would have been offset by Farrell's indiscipline and another lacklustre showing by their backs following last week's 20-9 warm-up loss to Wales in Cardiff.

Yeah. Had the pleasure/misfortune of missing this game as I was lugging furniture around. But this is pretty unambiguous. We await the disciplinary judgment. pic.twitter.com/kIMEycNjlZ

England could now be without Farrell for their World Cup opener against Argentina in Marseille on September 9, with the 31-year-old's availability for the rest of the pool phase set to be decided at a disciplinary hearing next week.

Any suspension would likely include 2019 losing finalists England's remaining warm-up games against Ireland and Fiji.

Scotland's Zander Fagerson is set to be available for his country's World Cup opener after the prop effectively had a game knocked off his ban by agreeing to go to a World Rugby 'tackle school'