Irish rugby plunged into crisis

IRELAND'S Six Nations campaign was plunged towards crisis last night after a chaotic day saw both Bundee Aki and Hugo Keenan leave the camp.

- GARRY DOYLE

Full-back Keenan has been ruled out after fracturing his thumb in training in Portugal.

And centre Aki will miss the first three matches this spring after getting a six-week ban, with two weeks suspended for two years, as an Independent Disciplinary Committee upheld a misconduct complaint over interactions with match officials following Connacht's URC loss to Leinster.

Injury

Andy Farrell's side open their campaign this day week but Keenan (29) had to quit the warm-weather camp after suffering the injury on Tuesday.