England's Francis cited over high tackle against USA

Francis will appear before a three-member independent judicial committee in Tokyo, following England's 45-7 win over the Eagles in Kobe on Thursday.

 

The centre made the tackle from the opening kick-off.

 

His citing comes after Australia's Reece Hodge and Rey Lee-Lo of Samoa both received three-match bans for high tackles, which are under severe scrutiny at Japan 2019.

 

John Quill has also been cited for a late shot on England captain Owen Farrell in the same game that saw the US flanker receive the first red card of this World Cup.

 

World Rugby has introduced a new framework for policing high tackles, and the governing body took the unusual step of criticising refereeing standards after the tournament's first weekend.

 

England coach Eddie Jones, asked after the match about Francis's tackle on Hooley, said they would "take whatever is handed out" by disciplinary chiefs.

 

Meanwhile, England fullback Elliot Daly, speaking to reporters on Friday, said: "It hasn't changed that much in my eyes, you want to make good tackles, that's all you really want to do."

 

"Sometimes you slip up and you'll get deemed (to have made a) high tackle now."

 

"It's safer for the game and to be honest any rule that comes in you have to abide by it and that's obviously for the safety of us and everyone around us," he added.

 

Wallaby wing Hodge, like Francis, escaped on-field action for a high tackle on Fiji's Paceli Yato during Australia's opening 39-21 Pool D win in Sapporo on Saturday.

 

But Hodge was subsequently banned after being cited, with Clive Woodward, England's 2003 World Cup-winning coach, expecting similar treatment for Francis.

 

"I am sure Francis will be cited and, with the precedent having been set, he will get a three-match ban," Woodward wrote in his Daily Mail column before the citing was announced.

 

"It's a bit unsatisfactory.

 

"The ugly assault on Owen Farrell by John Quill late in the second half is why we have red cards."

 

Woodward added: "This is the point I have been trying to make about the Reece Hodge incident last week... It was not a challenge that deserves a three-match ban.

 

"However, World Rugby, by making an example of Hodge, have now made it difficult not to punish any remotely similar incident.

 

"They have set the bar unrealistically high."