Ireland’s woes continue to mount as Peter O’Mahony ruled out

Ireland could be left counting the cost of their win though, with captain Paul O’Connell’s glittering Test career nearly certainly at an end after he suffered a serious hamstring injury.

“Paul O’Connell appears to have suffered a significant hamstring injury and was hospitalised overnight”, said team manager Mick Kearney on Monday morning. He is awaiting further scans today but management are not optimistic. The 35-year-old lock is quitting Test rugby at the end of this tournament so it would be a cruel way for one of the game’s greats to finish his worldwide career.

“Johnny Sexton suffered a groin injury, initial clinical assessment is encouraging and we await scanning later today”.

Ireland will now avoid favourites for the World Cup New Zealand in the quarter-finals and will play Argentina instead.

His fellow back-row forward Sean O’Brien has been cited for an off-the-ball clash with Pascal Pape and he will appear before a disciplinary panel. The citing officer has 36 hours to make a decision.

“Everyone thought we were brilliant, we thought we were brilliant and we went out and got pumped by a really good Wales team”.

Kearney said that no decisions had yet been made on replacements for O’Mahony, O’Connell or indeed centre Jared Payne who was ruled out of the tournament over the weekend due to a foot fracture.

“There’s not much I can say here now in the next 30 seconds that can give testament to his contribution to Irish rugby and this World Cup”, he said.

Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who had no hesitation in choosing O’Connell as his skipper for the title-winning 2014 Six Nations side despite his injuries – various knee, groin and ankle problems had through the years caused him to miss many matches – and his age, summed up O’Connell’s class with a word from his homeland: “Mana”. “It’s just the nature of things”.

“I suppose the fact that he’s been around more than any of us at World Cups, it is hard for him”, Kearney said, accepting O’Connell’s fate.

He swung. I don’t think he’s looking directly at the player. “But it was great to see the sheer delight on his face after the game”. He was beaming from ear to ear. I also think it’s not a closed fist. It’s hopefully not something that impacts on us considering the dressing room at the moment.

“When you’re in tournaments like this where the physicality is so big, and you can see other teams suffering from it too, you don’t have huge amounts of time to sit around thinking about it”.