STAIRWAY TO HELL

Cherry's tourney over after head knock at team hotel

- DAVID BARNES

DAVE CHERRY survived 24 minutes against South Africa's infamous 'bomb squad', only to be injured out of Scotland's World Cup campaign by a flight of stairs 24 hours later.

The hooker left the national team hotel yesterday nursing a concussion he suffered following the accident on Monday night and his place has been taken by Stuart McInally.

Head coach Gregor Townsend said: "I can't really paint a picture of what happened because I wasn't there, but he was on his way to bed.

"He hit the back of his head and Ally Little - our physio - was in the room just outside and reported straight away that there was a concussion.

"The medics presumed there was a loss of consciousness for 10 to 20 seconds and, as you know, we take head knocks very seriously.