O'Driscoll injury compounds Ireland's misery

Eddie O’Sullivan refused to blame fixture scheduling for Ireland’s heart-breaking failure to win the RBS 6 Nations as France were crowned champions by the narrowest of margins.

Ireland’s clash with Italy opened the final day of the championship, ensuring title rivals France – who defeated Scotland 46-19 – knew what they had to do to retain their crown.

“It was a tough day. We entered our match knowing we had to win and hopefully by enough to win the championship,” said the Ireland coach.

“The only thing is we didn’t know how much we had to win by. We just kept kicking on in the game and putting as much points on the board as we could.

“France did have a slight advantage in that they knew what they had to do to win the championship.

“That’s the way the cookie crumbles. I thought Scotland were going to do us a favour there, but it wasn’t to be because France scored right at the death.

“I don’t think you can start matches on the last day at the same time. You’re talking about moving thousands of people and TV times around and it’s not practical.

“You have to make a draw at the start of it and get on with it.

“I suppose when a tournament is going to be decided on points difference like this one has been for the last two seasons, there is always a risk of this sort of thing happening.

“We all know that and can’t do anything about it. It’s the way the cookie crumbles. It didn’t go well for us today. I thought we were there but then we weren’t.

“Had France won by 40 points it would be a lot easier to swallow. It was great drama though.”

After dispatching Italy, Ireland raced back to the team hotel to catch the latter stages of France’s showdown with Scotland.

The squad gathered in the lobby to watch the drama unfold and an enormous groan rang out when Elvis Vermeulen’s late try was awarded by television match official Simon McDowell.

Skipper Brian O’Driscoll, supported by crutches after suffering a serious hamstring tear, looked stunned and shook his head before hobbling off.

Irishman McDowell will not have done his popularity back home much good after awarding France the decisive try but the Triple Crown holders had a hand in their own downfall.

Having established the 30-point cushion that would have been enough to land the title, they opted not to kick the ball into touch even though the clock had passed 80 minutes.

They went for the try but instead turned over possession and conceded what proved to be the decisive score, with Roland de Marigny crossing and Andrea Scanavacca slotting the conversion.

The late try reduced France’s victory target against the Scots to 23 and Bernard Laporte’s side eclipsed that total by four.

It was the second time in the 2007 Six Nations they had leaked a late try to enormous cost – against France, Vincent Clerc scored with a minute left to end their Grand Slam dream.

And today de Marigny crashed over two minutes after time had run down to end Irish hopes of landing their first title for 22 years.

When the final whistle blew at the Stadio Flaminio this afternoon, Ireland appeared to have done enough to dethrone the defending champions with an eight-try rout of Italy.

Girvan Dempsey and Denis Hickie ran in a brace of tries each while Simon Easterby, Gordon D’Arcy, Shane Horgan and Ronan O’Gara also crossed.

Italy put them under heavy pressure in the first half and trailed just 20-12 at half-time thanks to the boot of Ramiro Pez, but Ireland were lethal with the ball in hand and their class eventually told.

Ireland’s victory was marred by the injury to O’Driscoll who had to be helped from the pitch in the second half.

“Brian has a serious hamstring strain. We don’t know the extent of the damage but he’s in a lot of pain,” said O’Sullivan.

“He’ll have a scan tomorrow and we’ll see what the damage is, but it doesn’t look great at the moment.”

Italy were on the scent of an unprecedented hat-trick of Celtic scalps but skipper Macro Bortolami admitted his side were outclassed by Ireland’s precision attacking game.

“Ireland play best rugby in Europe at the moment and we knew this would be a very hard game for us,” he said.

“They kept the ball in hand and scored a lot of points. We had two wins before this match but we still have a lot of work to do before the World Cup.”