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Borthwick left to decide Henry Arundell's immediate Six Nations future

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND - FEBRUARY 14: Henry Arundell of England is shown a yellow card by referee Nika Amashukeli (obscured) during the Guinness Six Nations 2026 match between Scotland and England at Scottish Gas Murrayfield on February 14, 2026 in Edinburgh, Scotland. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

England wing Henry Arundell will not face any further sanction for the costly 20-minute red card he received in last Saturday’s 31-20 Calcutta Cup defeat to Scotland.

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An independent Six Nations disciplinary committee has decided that the red card was sufficient punishment and he is free to play in Saturday’s round three clash against Ireland.

A statement released by the championship organisers said: “The player accepted that he had committed the acts of foul play that resulted in the showing of the two yellow cards, which led to the red card.

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“The independent Disciplinary Committee upheld the red card but determined that, in the circumstances (including that the first yellow card had been issued for a ‘technical offence’, and that the second yellow card had been issued for a very different act of foul play), the sending off of the player had been a sufficient sanction, and no further sanction was appropriate.

“The player is now free to play.”

Arundell was first sin-binned for not clearly releasing in the tackle, before picking up a second yellow for taking out Kyle Steyn in the air.

The Bath man still maanged to find his way across the whitweash for the fourth time in the Six Nations, making him the leading try-scorer in this year’s championship after the opening two rounds.


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6 Comments
G
GH 44 days ago

Absolute shame. Any other country player would get a one game suspension at least. Red card is red card, they recognized the red card. So out!

u
unknown 45 days ago

My issue with Arundell is the mental side of things. If you’ve already been yellow carded (albeit harshly) you need to be clean and not offer the officials any chance to red card you. While he was watching the ball all the way he either had to get aerial and be seen to contest for the ball. I think he actually overran the ball. The Irish will target him and he needs to show more than his finishing ability at this level

u
unknown 45 days ago

With Feyi-Waboso most likely out through injury, Roebuck having had a pretty disappointing game, and Stewart having had a shocker at Murrayfield, who does Borthwick turn to for his back three?

If he’s fit, I’d start Furbank at 15, move Freeman to 11 and persevere with Arundell (who’s scored 4 tries in only 3 halves of rugby!)

u
unknown 45 days ago

Roebuck had a thankless task largely due to Arundell. Steward’s USP was his aerial ability but he has been that great in the air of late. One thing is for sure Freeman needs to go back on the wing and Lawrence come back into the side

u
unknown 45 days ago

First yellow was very harsh but he is very lucky to escape with no further sanction for taking out player in the air, having made no attempt to jump for it himself. NB I am an England supporter.

f
fl 45 days ago

I’m not sure what the letter of the law is, but the second yellow was clearly accidental. He kept his eyes on the ball the entire time so was clearly trying to catch the ball, but was not aware at all of Steyn’s position. He deserved a yellow for the reckless and dangerous action, but serious punishment would feel very wrong to me.

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JW 5 hours ago
New report details source of Ardie Savea's All Blacks frustrations

Yeah it’s hard to be critical of Razor but of choices in his first year of the loosies he constantly played Ardie at 8. It would seem that was always the plan and that Hoskins was surplas to requirements (7, with Dalton then Cane, as was fairly happy with but understand the calls to drop Cane for his last test, along with TJ, and 6 was shared around nicely I thought) and he didn’t have the alround game of Ardie to simply overtake him at 8 (and use Ardie elsewhere). Of course he did that exact thing next year, too late for HS. Then last year 7 was fine if though the same problem was brought about by using Ardie (always leaves a component of a back three missing) there so often stopping Dalton from getting opportunities. At 6 Parker just had one or two too many games for me but 8 was shuffled around nicely, even if I don’t know why Lakai was thought to be the key there.

Of course a lot of rotation was brought about by, you guesed it, injury, still. Now to be fair to Razor, in reality we have no idea if he had to manage Ardie this way, based on NZRs desires with his contract (we have seen them move heaven and earth to retain him), and if he benched him often whether that would have caused him to leave or not. Or even that Hoskins would have accepted a jersey unless it was with a single digit on it, and a regular pick, as he had had to work his way back to the team without a big bump in his contract (of loosing AB selection early on) of other people his standing, so he also might have still put his family and therefor more over the jersey.



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