Riche Mo'unga hits out at 'double standard' of disciplinary process

UNHAPPY: Richie Mo'unga of New Zealand. File pic: Dan Mullan/Getty Images

New Zealand playmaker Richie Mo’unga has hit out at the inconsistency of verdicts in recent disciplinary hearings, calling this week’s downgrading of Owen Farrell’s red card to a yellow “a slap in the face”.

England captain Farrell is facing a fresh disciplinary hearing early next week after governing body World Rugby appealed a judicial verdict delivered by an independent panel convened by Six Nations Rugby in the wake of the fly-half’s red card for high contact on Wales’s Taine Basham in last Saturday’s World Cup warm-up Test at Twickenham.