O’Brien’s final fate hangs in the balance

SEAN O’BRIEN will have to wait until tea-time today before discovering whether he will miss the Heineken Cup final as well as the business end of Leinster’s Magners League campaign.

The flanker was seen to strike opposite number Yannick Nyanga after the Toulouse forward had obstructed him in the run-up to Louis Picamoles’ try shortly after half time during Saturday’s thriller at Lansdowne Road.

It appeared O’Brien was swinging merely to free himself from the Frenchman’s illegal grip but Paul O’Connell received a four-week ban earlier this season for a similar reaction against the Ospreys’ Jonathan Thomas, for which he also received a red card.