ENGLAND LOCK Charlie Ewels has revealed how ended up giving Ireland's James Ryan a head injury in Twickenham.
Ryan had to leave the pitch a minute into Ireland's 32-15 win in the second last weekend of the championship.
Ewels tackled the Leinster man at head height and was sent off changing the tie of the game.
Eddie Jone's team battled well, but it changed the dynamic of the game leaving Ireland with an added advantage for 79 minutes of the tie.
Red card!
Game-changing moment inside two minutes as Charlie Ewels is sent off for foul play after an upright hit on James Ryan#ITVRugby pic.twitter.com/qw4eY9XdeQ— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) March 12, 2022
“A lot of it was to do with my entry height. He passes the ball, I’m thinking I’m tackling him, then I’m thinking I’m trying to tackle Johnny Sexton.
I was coming up again, and got caught in that horrible halfway house,” Ewels told the outlet
“I saw the ref [Mathieu Raynal] walking back with Courtney Lawes – he had his cards out and I thought, ‘Oh no, yellow.’ Then I saw the red.
“That makes it sounds like I’m appealing the decision – I’m not, it’s a red card. It was a very quiet walk back. I do a lot of breath work, so I thought, ‘Right. Breathe.’
I walked past James Lowe. He said to me, ‘Unlucky, mate.’ I appreciated that.”
“It was a split-second thing that went wrong. If I’d have punched or trodden on someone, lost my head, I’d have sat there thinking, ‘Why did I do that?’ and would’ve collected my thoughts on my own.
I practice tackling but what I don’t practice a lot is height change and making decisions in the situation I was in.
“When you’re 180 beats per minute [heart-rate], knackered — obviously I wasn’t in my game — and in the speed of it, you drift back to your trained habits.”
Ryan missed Ireland's final game against Scotland, but was part of the team's Triple Crown celebrations after.
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 12: Ireland player James Ryan receives treatment after a clash with England player Charlie Ewel. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)