Ireland's O'Brien, two Scots banned for RWC quarterfinals

Ireland flanker Sean O'Brien was suspended for one week for striking France's Pascal Pape in the stomach and Scotland forwards Ross Ford and Jonny Gray were each suspended for three weeks for dangerous tackles on the last weekend of pool matches, ruling all three players out of the Rugby World Cup quarterfinals. O'Brien's absence adds to the concerns of the Irish, who have seen captain Paul O'Connell, flanker Peter O'Mahony, and centre Jared Payne ruled out of the tournament because of injury over the last four days. Star flyhalf Jonathan Sexton is also an injury doubt for Ireland's quarterfinal match against Argentina with an adductor problem. The match officials missed O'Brien swinging his forearm into Pape's midriff in the first 30 seconds of Ireland's 24-9 win over the French in Cardiff on Sunday. He was cited on Monday and O'Brien accepted a charge of foul play on Tuesday. He is free to play in the semi-finals, should Ireland beat Argentina at Millennium Stadium on Sunday. The Pumas will be missing veteran centre Marcelo Bosch, who was suspended for a week by judicial officer Jean-Noel Couraud of France after admitting to making a tip tackle on Namibia flyhalf Theuns Kotze in Argentina's Pool C win on the weekend. He was yellow-carded in the 53rd minute of the match. For Scotland, the loss of hooker Ford and lock Gray is a massive setback ahead of its quarterfinal against two-time World Cup champion Australia on Sunday. Both players were cited by independent citing commission Scott Nowland of Australia following Scotland's 36-33 win over Samoa in Newcastle on Saturday. Speculation as to the fairness of the citing procedure prompted World Rugby to release a statement defending the integrity of the disciplinary panel even before the rulings on the Scottish players were made. Ross and Gray denied committing acts of foul play, but judicial officer Christopher Quinlan of England upheld the citing at a hearing on Tuesday and settled on a suspension of three weeks for each of them. That rules the pair out for the remainder of the World Cup, regardless of how far Scotland progresses. NAMPA/AP