Armitage is handed eight week suspension

ENGLAND international Delon Armitage will miss virtually the entire RBS 6 Nations after receiving an eight-week ban for conduct prejudicial to the interests of the game.

London Irish star Armitage was found to have pushed and used threatening and/or abusive and obscene language towards a doping control officer by a RFU disciplinary hearing held in London last evening.

The 27-year-old pleaded not guilty but was suspended until March 17 by the panel chaired by the RFU’s disciplinary officer Judge Jeff Blackett.

Meanwhile, London Irish winger Topsy Ojo has warned Munster they won’t have an easy run to the Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-finals tomorrow. Tony McGahan’s side have failed to reach the Heineken Cup quarter-finals for the first time since the 1998/99 season, but can qualify for the last eight of the Amlin if they beat Irish at Thomond Park. That would be scant consolation, but Toby Booth’s visitors know they can also seal qualification if they claim a surprise away victory and Toulon beat Ospreys.

And England winger Ojo, who scored when Irish beat Munster at the Madejski Stadium in the first round of the Pool Stage, insists the visitors are full of confidence despite their own woeful form.

Sunday’s 24-12 victory over Ospreys ended a shocking run of 10 successive defeats in all competitions, but despite that disastrous sequence Ojo insists that Irish will not be overawed at Thomond.

“I’m sure that Munster will be very disappointed not to have made the quarter-finals and they will want to prove a point, but we will be up for the game. We beat them at our place and so we will be positive when we go there on Saturday. And we know that although Munster are a great side with great players, we can beat them.

“There is no way that this game is a dead rubber. We see the Amlin as another chance to win some silverware.”

And Ojo believes Munster will recover from the crushing blow of early elimination to compete at the business end of the Heineken Cup next season.

“Munster will be back next year – they always are,” he added. “We know from having gone to Toulon that it is a very tough place to play, against a quality side and with the crowd right on your back. Munster just couldn’t get the result they needed.”

But the 25-year-old believes he has seen a chink in the Munster armour that he can exploit on the weekend to make the most of their hosts’ fragile confidence.

“We know if we get the ball in space then we have the players who can finish off most opportunities,” he said.

“The tries have been coming, and now we have got a win under our belts we want to kick on,” he added.