Rugby:As the dust settles on a bitterly disappointing end to Ireland's Six Nations campaign, Leinster are also counting the cost after it was confirmed this evening that Brian O'Driscoll suffered medial ligament damage to his right knee at Croke Park.
The Ireland captain left Croke Park on crutches and was taken to hospital for a scan last night. It is believed the injury is similar to that sustained by Rob Kearney earlier in the campaign and the centre is facing at least two to three weeks on the sidelines.
With the defending European champions due to meet Clermont Auvergne in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals on April 9th, O’Driscoll clearly faces a race against time to be fit for that clash.
Leinster face Connacht in the Magners League next Friday before travelling to Munster the following weekend ahead of that daunting meeting with Clermont.
In another blow for Michael Cheika’s side, O’Driscoll’s midfield partner Gordon D’Arcy, who had been nursing a bruised knee ahead of yesterday’s 23-20 defeat to Scotland, is also an injury concern after sustaining a groin strain.
Geordan Murphy was another casualty from the Scotland game, the Leicester full-back straining muscles in his back.
Stephen Ferris, meanwhile, believes Ireland let the occasion get to them as a Triple Crown slipped away and their four-year tenure at GAA headquarters was bookended in defeats.
“There was a lot of hype coming into this game and you can’t help but lift the paper and read about it,” he said. “It was a massive day for us and the whole of Ireland but perhaps sometimes you need to distance yourselves from that.
“For me personally there was so much hype about Scotland being the last game at Croke Park that you can try too hard and sometimes that isn’t the best thing to do.
“When you’re on the pitch it’s all guns blazing like every Test match, but before the game we were thinking about the occasion a bit more than we usually would.
“Maybe that impacted our game, maybe it did for mine slightly. That’s the way it was for me and it might be the same for a few of the other players. But that’s experience and it’s in the bank now.”
Ireland bristled with intent during a lightning-fast start but were hamstrung by a succession of handling errors that enabled Scotland to survive. Too eager to treat Croke Park to a spectacular finale, they watched as the Scots weathered the storm and hit back to establish a 17-7 lead early in the second half.
A bulldozing try from number eight John Beattie and the kicking of the superb Parks, who finished with 18 points, did the damage on the scoreboard. The victory would have been more decisive had Ireland not enjoyed lucky breaks on both tries, as Brian O’Driscoll’s opener clearly came from a forward pass by Jonathan Sexton while Tommy Bowe’s grounding of the ball was inconclusive.
“We made too many mistakes on the day. It was tit for tat the whole game,” said Ferris. “By the third quarter we hit a purple patch and we thought we’d kick on but every time we got back into the game they kept hunting us down.
“When they have a kicker like Dan Parks who slots them over from everywhere, it’s very difficult. There was no lack of effort from us and it was a tight game that could have gone either way.”
* Russia, who will be playing in their first World Cup, have been confirmed in the same 2011 Rugby World Cup group as Ireland. Russia join Ireland, Australia, Italy and the United States in Pool C.