Ireland confident D’Arcy and Earls will report for duty

As expected, payment for Cardiff’s heroics was still being made by a number of Ireland’s players yesterday but team management expressed confidence that a clean bill of health will be achievable by Friday at the latest.

In all, a casualty list that extended to six players — Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Keith Earls, Peter O’Mahony, Mike Ross and Rob Kearney — was read out by team manager Mick Kearney at yesterday’s briefing but two in particular are causing more concern than the rest after a training session in the gym.

D’Arcy was carried off the Millennium Stadium pitch in some discomfort with a dead leg after 43 minutes and his replacement, Earls, finished the game with a shoulder injury which restricted him to a modified run-out yesterday.