Hackney’s Courtney Lawes was keen to highlight the positives in England’s narrow but feisty 19-17 victory over Wales in their latest Rugby World Cup warm-up encounter at Twickenham.

An incident-packed encounter saw Steve Borthwick’s troops reduced to 12 players in a fiery-tempered second half period, but they rallied superbly to snatch a late victory.

Captain Owen Farrell joined Ellis Genge and Freddie Steward in the sin bin for a dangerously high tackle to the head of Welsh openside flanker Taine Basham.

But after another TMO check under the new bunker review system, Farrell's yellow card was upgraded to red and he was given his marching orders on 63 minutes by referee Nika Amashukeli.

However, Tuesday’s disciplinary hearing reversed the decision meaning Farrell is not only free to play in the rest of England’s remaining warm-up fixtures against Ireland in Dublin on Saturday (August 19) and Fiji at Twickenham (August 26 but also in their World Cup opener against Argentina in Marseille, France on September 9.

Farrell had slotted three first-half penalties while his Saracens clubmate, Camden-born Maro Itoje, scored the home side's only try on 68 minutes.

Tomos Williams’ converted try on 66 minutes seemed to seal it for Wales, however Sale Sharks’ fly-half George Ford kicked a penalty four minutes from time as England avenged the 20-9 defeat in Cardiff from seven days earlier, much to the relief of Lawes who plays his club rugby for Premiership outfit Northampton Saints.

“There’s not many teams win that game so obviously we can take the positives out of it,” said vice-captain Lawes, 34.

“At the same time it’s probably not good enough going down to 12 men and if we keep putting ourselves in those kind of situations then we’re not likely to do as well as we are today, so there’s a lot to learn.

“But it’s great to show that kind of strength of character in the squad so early and that gives us confidence to push on and get things right, also make sure the next time we’re out there we get one step better.”