Injury rules Robbie Henshaw out of Test decider against South Africa

Robbie Henshaw was last night ruled out of Saturday’s third and final Test match with South Africa. 

The Leinster-bound Connacht back will return home for knee cartilage surgery after suffering the injury during Ireland’s nightmare collapse against the Springboks in the last 20 minutes of Saturday’s second Test defeat, which levelled the series at 1-1 heading into this weekend’s decider in Port Elizabeth.

The news of the loss of another key frontline player – several including Johnny Sexton failed to even make the trip due to injury – came as a deeply disappointed Joe Schmidt was monitoring the recoveries of his players and assessing their capacity to go the well one last time in what will have been a 12-month season when the final whistle sounds on Saturday.