With little over a minute on the clock in Saturday's crucial Six Nations match, Charlie Ewels went in for a tackle on Ireland's James Ryan with the Bath star's head colliding with the Leinsterman's resulting in a straight red card for the England man.
The sending off was deemed the appropriate course of action by French referee Mathieu Reynal with the Irish player looking dazed following the collision and having to be replaced after failing his head injury assessment.
Soon after, Ireland opened the scoring through James Lowe with England's backs to the wall and a huge mountain to climb despite the reprieve of Caelan Doris' disallowed try.
England bounced back with a penalty from Marcus Smith to show shoots of recovery and will hope that the home crowd can be the extra man for the remainder of the game.
However, despite the clear disadvantage the decision left England with, fans were clear in their views with the majority backing the decision of the French referee.
Twitter user Paul Eddison backed the referee, saying: "Fair play to Mathieu Raynal. Never afraid to make the big decisions. He's got that spot on, Ewels can have no complaints."
Another user EK Rugby Analysis offered their view, tweeting: "Honestly don't like to see a red so early in the game, or both players going off, but Ewels has got to make some kind of effort to get low there."
England need a victory to keep their Championship hopes alive and fans will hope that they can salvage a win from what is a very inauspicious start to their Round Five fixture.
