The Irish Independent's Hugh Farrelly believes Ireland will rue the absence of their key trio ahead of the World Cup warm-up clash with England.
"Don't panic. That was the rather frenetic message from the Ireland camp this week as their torrid bout with World Cup warm-up internationals received another flurry of gut punches, with Sean O'Brien added to the injury list and Brian O'Driscoll and Rob Kearney ruled out of this afternoon's clash with England.
As 2007 proved conclusively, you cannot expect to perform at a World Cup if you go into the tournament minus any sort of momentum and, with three defeats on the bounce and five losses from their last seven outings as well as a succession of injury issues, Ireland have all the momentum of a drunken slug.
Thus, of all their frontline players, Ireland needed O'Driscoll today."
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