Ireland to assess injuries as attention turns to New Zealand in the quarter-final

Ireland will be sweating on the fitness of a number of players ahead of next Saturday's Rugby World Cup quarter-final with New Zealand, with James Lowe, Mack Hansen and James Ryan all picking up knocks in the 36-14 win against Scotland.

The Irish management went for a cautious approach in the second half, removing Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Andrew Porter, Tadhg Beirne and Peter O'Mahony by the 46th minute, to avoid any unnecessary injuries with the game having been put to bed by their fifth try of the night.

By then, they had already lost two players to injury though, with Hansen and Lowe having departed.

Hansen initially left for a head injury assessment shortly after the 20 minute mark, but while he did return to the pitch it was a brief appearance, and the wing will now be checked out for a calf injury, which he was seen icing in the second half.

"Obviously, we'll see how they pull up in the morning but Mack went off with a HIA and when he came back on he felt his calf straight away, so we got him off," head coach Andy Farrell said.

Lowe was removed at half time after receiving treatment on multiple occasions in the first half, having got an accidental bang around his eye.

"His eye shut and he couldn't really see much. His vision was coming back towards the end of the game, which is good," he added.

Injuries to the pair resulted in Garry Ringrose and Jamison Gibson-Park filling in as wingers for 60 and 40 minutes respectively, but it had little impact on the game which Ireland had sewn up by half time.

Farrell will also be assessing a wrist injury to James Ryan in the second half of the win. It's the second game in a row that the lock has injured his wrist, although Farrell did not confirm whether it was a continuance of