Best out for six weeks with broken arm

Ireland’s Rory Best has been confirmed as the biggest casualty of Sunday’s defeat to New Zealand after being ruled out by Ulster for at least six weeks.

Best, who scored the second of three first-half tries as Ireland took a 19-0 lead over the world champions, only lasted 15 minutes before suffering a broken radius in his right forearm. He saw a specialist in Belfast yesterday, who confirmed the hooker would be sidelined until the new year at the earliest, definitely ruling the 31-year-old out of Ulster’s Heineken Cup home and away ties with Benetton Treviso next month and putting him in doubt for the round five pool game at home to Montpellier.

Best will not be the only absentee from the Treviso double-header, with fellow forwards Nick Williams (calf) and Lewis Stevenson (knee) also ruled out while Iain Henderson’s participation is also in doubt after a hamstring injury suffered against Edinburgh in Ulster’s league win at Ravenhill last Friday. The Ireland lock/back-row, who missed the autumn internationals with a toe injury and was making his comeback from that at the weekend, was due to have an MRI scan yesterday to determine the extent of the injury.