Bruised Irish pick up the pieces

So much for three days off. When Ireland returned to training camp on Thursday, the physical pain and mental anguish caused by last Sunday’s 12-6 Six Nations defeat to England was still lingering.

To the broken bodies, already numbering Simon Zebo, Jonathan Sexton and Mike McCarthy as definite non-starters against Scotland in eight days, was yesterday added Gordon D’Arcy, ruled out for the rest of the RBS 6 Nations Championship with a foot injury.

D’Arcy had not been amongst the casualties on an already lengthy treatment list, also including his centre partner Brian O’Driscoll, lock Donnacha Ryan, and back row Sean O’Brien, in the wake of that Dublin defeat but the IRFU revealed the veteran number 12 had suffered a stress injury to a bone in his right foot.