Kearney: Irish injury misfortune ‘bizarre’

Rob Kearney has described the injury plague that bedeviled Ireland’s Six Nations campaign as the worst he has ever experienced, joking the casualty count was so high, a sniper might have been at work.

The horrible denouement against Italy, where back-rower Peter O’Mahony ended on the wing, such were the enforced departures, was a dreaded nadir.

That’s saying something, given they had already considered themselves at rock bottom with Jonathan Sexton, Paul O’Connell, Tommy Bowe, Simon Zebo, Gordon D’Arcy, Stephen Ferris, Chris Henry, Richardt Strauss and Eoin Reddan amongst those already ruled out by then.