Ireland 42 - 6 Bayonne

Brian O’Driscoll has suffered a fractured sinus after being punched in the face, while the injury is not as bad as first thought the IRB have demanded the French rugby union investigate the incident. This was supposedly a friendly match between Ireland and French club Bayonne but instead resulted in five yellow cards and a very physical game.

I don’t mind physicality, but it was more than physical. There were some cheap shots, that’s the pity, but that’s the way they want to play it. We can’t control that, we can only play our game.

Eddie O’Sullivan

It is easy to spin a conspiracy theory on this story, after all it was Bayonne who suggested that Ireland should play a warm-up game with them just weeks before the world cup kicks off. Bayonne were a team with nothing to lose who were clearly in the mind set to rough up a few Irish players.

O’Driscoll will certainly miss Ireland’s first pool game against Namibia and possibly the second game against Georgia. While Ireland should win these games comfortably it is important match time that Brian will be missing out on.

We can only hope for a speedy recovery…