Ireland's squad for the three-Test tour of the Americas has been hit hard by injury, a legacy of Sunday's international between an Ireland XV and the Barbarians. Four players - Brian O'Driscoll, Girvan Dempsey, Geordan Murphy and Denis Hickie - were forced to remain behind in Dublin when the team left for Argentina yesterday.
St Mary's College full back Peter McKenna, Mike Mullins (Young Munster), James Topping (Ballymena) and Tyrone Howe (Dungannon) have been drafted into the travelling party to replace the injured players. The latter enjoyed a frantic morning as passports, visas and travelling gear had to be accumulated with great haste.
O'Driscoll's torn hamstring was diagnosed immediately after Sunday's game and he was therefore resigned to missing the tour. For the remainder a visit to hospital and a battery of tests were required. Dempsey was ruled out because of concussion - he appeared to be struck by the forearm of former South African international Pieter Muller in an off-the-ball collision.
He is replaced by McKenna, who only recently recovered from an ankle injury. Leinster's first-choice full back this season, McKenna was selected to play in Ireland A's opening game against England earlier in the year but damaged an ankle in a league match the previous weekend.
It effectively kept him out for seven weeks before he returned for St Mary's last three games en route to an AIB League crown. Murphy damaged ankle ligaments after coming on as a replacement, ironically for the injured Dempsey on Sunday. His news is marginally better in that he has been given six or seven days to rehabilitate and if he can prove his fitness he will join the touring party in Boston during the second week.
Ireland A wing Tyrone Howe, after a string of fine performances for club and national A side, deputises. Mullins, who won the last of his five caps against Italy, and was a bit unlucky to miss out in the first place, fills in for O'Driscoll.
Hickie's withdrawal has earned a recall for former international wing Topping. The Ballymena man won the last of his five caps against England in 1997 and since then has been plagued by injuries. He was again sidelined for most of this season but came back in time to help Ballymena into the AIB League semi-finals.
There was better news for Jeremy Davidson (shoulder), stretchered from the pitch on Sunday. He has received medical approval to travel but must be very doubtful for next Saturday's Test against Argentina. Shane Horgan (knee ligaments), Ronan O'Gara (ankle), Rob Henderson (groin) and Anthony Foley (shoulder) were all considered well enough to make the tour.
Ireland will have just one training session ahead of Saturday's test in Buenos Aires before, spending the second week in Boston and the third in Toronto.
Meanwhile, the IRFU has placed a salary cap on club players in an attempt to clamp down on the "hello" payments that encourage individuals from one club to another. They issued a statement yesterday outlining the new proposals agreed with the overwhelming majority of clubs.
The IRFU statement read: "The union at a meeting on Sunday, May 28th adopted on an experimental basis for one year, regulations governing rugby at club level in Ireland relating to movement of players, in particular in providing financial limitations on payments to players.
"The union had been requested by the clubs to introduce regulations as outlined above. After a period of consultation with the clubs and Branches, the regulations were agreed by an overwhelming majority of the AIB League clubs.
"Accordingly those regulations are now in place and are now binding on all IRFU affiliated clubs. They are: 1) the maximum payable by a club to a player per season (not including the reimbursement of legitimate expenses) between match fees and win bonuses shall not exceed £3,500.
2) The fee, total of all payments by a club to all of its players by way of match fees and win bonuses should not exceed £50,000 per season.
"Subject to this limit a university club may provide for a player a bona fide bursary or scholarship as a student at a third level institution up to a maximum of £3,500 per player per season."
