O'Driscoll and Best out of autumn internationals

Ireland captain Brian O'Driscoll and Ulster hooker Rory Best have both been ruled out of the November Guinness Series against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina.

O'Driscoll picked up an ankle injury in the game against the Cardiff Blues and following further scans and specialist review by the Ireland medical team, it has been decided that the injury will require surgery to repair ligament damage, ruling out O'Driscoll from playing for 8-12 weeks.