Kearney: injuries may ruin Ireland’s World Cup

Full-back bemoans player losses while O’Brien waits for ruling after his punch

The full-back says that the loss of forwards Paul O’Connell and Peter O’Mahony are hammer blows

Ireland may have been too hot for the French to handle in Cardiff on Sunday night, but their joyous mood quickly evaporated in the cold light of day when Peter O’Mahony and Sean O’Brien, the two first-choice flankers, received the news they had been dreading. O’Mahony’s tournament is over because of a knee injury, while O’Brien must appear before a judicial officer this afternoon on a charge of punching.

Five days before their World Cup quarter-final against Argentina, a match they would fancy themselves to win at full strength, the Six Nations champions are now in a state of flux. Paul O’Connell, their captain, seems certain to follow O’Mahony out of the competition – he spent a night in hospital undergoing treatment on what was described as a “significant” hamstring problem – and there was also concern over Jonathan Sexton’s immediate prospects, the outsidehalf having suffered a groin strain just 25 minutes into the France game.

“The injuries do take the gloss off the victory,” confessed Rob Kearney, the Leinster full-back who scored the first of Ireland’s two tries at the Millennium Stadium. “You never like to lose players through injury, especially ones of this calibre. But when you are in a tournament where the physicality is so great, you