Ireland have been dealt a blow ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations clash with captain Brian O’Driscoll having been ruled out of the match due to the hamstring injury he picked up against Italy last weekend.
Ulster fans have an extra match to look forward to this weekend with the visit of South African Super 12 side The Bulls to Ravenhill for a friendly. Ulster are obviously weakened by the absense of some of their Internationals but coach Mark McCall will see the match as an opportunity to try some new things and to give his players an extra game before the Celtic League restarts next weekend.
The Leinster branch have announced that 31,000 of the 48,000 tickets for their Heineken Cup quarter-final with Leicester have already been snapped up and that leaves 17,000 tickets which Leinster Chief Executive Mick Dawson will be snapped up very quickly.
Eddie O’Sullivan has named both Brian O’Driscoll and Gordon D’Arcy in the Ireland team to face Scotland on Saturday. Both players had been regarded as extremely doubtful having picked up hamstring injuries against Italy next week. However scans performed on both players indicate that the injuries aren’t as bad as first thought and both players will start subject to passing fitness tests later in the week.
A flight delay has meant that scans to both Brian O’Driscoll’s and Gordon D’Arcy’s hamstring injuries have been delayed meaning that we will not recieve news on their fitness until tomorrow when Eddie O’Sullivan names his side for next Saturday’s clash with Scotland.
Ireland have got their Six Nations off to a good start with a 28 points to 17 victory over Italy in Rome. The result may have been good but the performance was anything but, with the Italians in contention right until the end. Ireland have also been hit with two huge injury blows with both Gordon D’Arcy and Brian O’Driscoll very doubtful for next Saturday’s game against Scotland.
Heineken and ERC, the Heineken Cup tournament organisers, have announced that Heineken will continue as title sponsor of the Heineken Cup club rugby tournament for another four years - through to the 14th final of the tournament in 2009.
Eddie O’Sullivan has announced the Ireland team for the trip to Italy for their opening Six Nations clash on Sunday.