Smith: Kidney exiled O’Leary

Declan Kidney made a ‘scapegoat’ of Tomás O’Leary by dropping him for the World Cup, according to London Irish boss Brian Smith.

Eoin Reddan, Conor Murray and Isaac Boss were chosen ahead of O’Leary for the tournament in New Zealand after the 28-year-old fell out of favour at Munster and performed poorly in the warm-up game against France in Dublin, throwing an intercept pass for a Francois Trinh-Duc try in the 26-22 defeat.

And Smith, who signed O’Leary for London Irish this summer on a three-year contract, believes Kidney treated the scrum-half disgracefully and says he still has faith the Cork native will reach the heights that saw him selected for the Lions in 2009.