Easterby's eye injury not as bad as feared

News: The unfortunate Simon Easterby, Ireland's captain against New Zealand and Australia in November, has tended to look like someone who had gone a few rounds with Mike Tyson in his pomp lately, but the prognosis on the nasty looking eye injury he sustained in Llanelli's defeat to Wasps on Sunday is not as bad as was initially feared.

Easterby was seen by an eye specialist in London on Sunday evening and was granted permission to travel back to Wales with his team-mates after examination revealed nothing worse than bruising resulting from a cut inside his eyelid.

The Llanelli team manager Anthony Buchanan commented last night: "He's fine and we're pretty happy with his condition. It's just a bruising in his eye and there's no damage to his retina or anything else. He was in a lot of discomfort obviously, but there's no long-term damage.

"He will obviously see an eye specialist again before he's allowed to play and while Friday night's game against the Dragons might be a little bit close he'll probably be back for our game against the Ospreys on December 28th."

Meanwhile, Gavin Henson must appear before an independent disciplinary hearing following his clash with Alex Moreno during the Ospreys's 17-15 Heineken European Cup defeat by Leicester on Sunday.

Alex Moreno was left with a broken nose after Henson reacted badly to a swinging arm from the Leicester prop and then added to his woes by aiming a kick at the floored Italian which missed. If found guilty on the kicking charge Henson faces three months on the sidelines, potentially ruling him out of Wales's entire Six Nations campaign. However, if the hearing takes account of mitigating circumstances and the centre's previous good record, the length of suspension could be reduced.

Ulster locks Justin Harrison and Matt McCullough and Saracens prop Kevin Yates have all been cited for punching during a bad-tempered clash at Vicarage Road on Saturday.

Ulster have included Justin Fitzpatrick in their starting line-up for tonight's A match against Leinster at Banbridge (6.30). Fitzpatrick returned to action in the European Cup defeat at Saracens on Saturday after recovering from injury.

LEINSTER A: E Hickey; G Brown, G Stafford, D McAllister, B Burke; J Hepworth, B O'Riordan; R McCormack, D Blaney, N Duffy, S Crawford, A Byrnes, K Croke, N Ronan, A Dunlop. Replacements: J Wickham, J Lyne, AN Other, A O'Sullivan, M D'Arcy, B Lynn, J Norton.

ULSTER A: M Kettyle; P McKenzie; S Young, P Wallace, A Wallace; G Steenson, R Spee; J Fitzpatrick, N Brady, J Andress, H Head, L Stevenson, C Henry, O Hennessy, C Feather. Replacements: N Conlon, S Philpott, R Frost, R Caldwell, P Marshall, S Stewart, AN Other.