Ireland’s O’Donnell ruled out of World Cup

Ireland flanker Tommy O’Donnell has been ruled out of contention for the Rugby World Cup after dislocating his hip in a warm-up match against Wales on Saturday.

Apart from the centres the remainder of the backline is set to be present at the World Cup, although wing Anthony Watson is the only guaranteed starter when the tournament opens against Fiji on September 18.

The defeat meant the Welsh made a losing start to their preparations for the global showpiece, in which they will face both Australia and England in the group stages. “They have a template that works for them: they get into your 22, they play one-pass rugby, they’re good at keeping possession”.

In particular veteran half-backs Mike Phillips and James Hook will be concerned.

It means the World Cup dream is about to end for some as the countdown continues towards Gatland’s final 31-man World Cup squad announcement later this month.

The giant winger, who grew up in Menai Bridge said: “It’s great to have some downtime as a squad – this is something completely different to what we would usually be doing so it’s nice to have some time off together”.

The Seapoint speedster was one of a host of impressive performers against Warren Gatland’s inexperienced outfit in Cardiff. “There are a lot of talented players, and some good backs are going to miss out”.

And this was echoed by fly-half Rhys Priestland who said: “It’s important for us to come up and visit North Wales because we know how hard it is for people to come down to Cardiff to watch us play”.

But he was keen to stress that he expected to win because of the greater experience in his side.

His hard work was rewarded with a fantastic try after Andrew Trimble forced a turn-over.

After the Wales victory, Ireland Head Coach Joe Schmidt said: “The frustrating thing for Tommy is that he made 14 or 15 tackles, he got at least three, maybe four or five turnovers”.

“But then going into that last game, I thought we were very close to the way we’d been playing, but mentally we just regressed a little bit from where we were against France and Wales”.

Prop life: competition for places is fierce as Schmidt prepares to cut his squad to 31. But only fly-half Paddy Jackson might be slightly perturbed after a not entirely satisfactory performance.

“This (Ireland game) was an opportunity for a lot of players to go out there and perform, so it will definitely have relevance”.