Irish tour squad may leave without captain O'Driscoll

Ireland's southern hemisphere tour squad will be reinforced later today by the arrival of their Heineken Cup-winning Munster contingent.

They could head to New Zealand later this week without their captain Brian O'Driscoll, however.

O'Driscoll missed last night's 39-14 victory over the Barbarians at Kingsholm following the death of a close friend.

He returned to Dublin from the Irish squad's Cheltenham base just hours before kick-off and was replaced in the starting line-up by Connacht's Gavin Duffy.

Asked if he knew when O'Driscoll might rejoin the squad, Ireland coach Michael Bradley said: "No, not at the moment. It is a private matter."

The Ireland squad, currently based at the Surrey training venue regularly used by Clive Woodward's England 2003 World Cup heroes, leave London for Wellington on Friday night.

They face the All Blacks on June 7 and Australia in Melbourne seven days later.

Despite losing O'Driscoll, Ireland cruised home by playing some thrilling rugby that produced tries for stand-in skipper Shane Horgan (two), number eight Jamie Heaslip (two) and wing Tommy Bowe.

Fly-half Paddy Wallace chipped in with 14 points, while the Barbarians were restricted to converted touchdowns by back-row forwards Craig Newby and Pedrie Wannenburg.

Horgan said: "I enjoyed the captaincy.

"It was a very proud day for me, and it meant as much to me as it would have done if it had been for a full Test match.

"It is like anything in any rugby team, the energy and enthusiasm of the squad is generated from winning games. When players get their hands on the ball, you get confidence."

Bradley added: "It was a good result and a good performance. We are very happy with the way the lads played.

"We set out our stall in terms of defence and a couple of related objectives, and we had worked on our phase play as well.

"I thought all 22 players did well. There were some very good players in that Barbarians side.

"The point was made at half-time about going out and finishing the job, which is what we did."