Humphreys hits out at O’Leary’s Irish omission

Ian Humphreys believes Ireland have been neglectful not to include London Irish teammate Tomás O’Leary in the current set-up.

The out-half, who played alongside O’Leary in his team’s 29-22 win over Bath at the weekend, declared that the former Munster man had been ‘hard done by’ in the past year.

“He was unfairly criticised pre-World Cup and people must remember that he was in great form and a shoe-in for the Lions Tour [in 2009] before his injury,” said Humphreys.

“He was hard done by in terms of World Cup selection and it has been neglectful of Ireland not to include him more.”

O’Leary was not named in Declan Kidney’s 30-man training squad last Friday and Paul Marshall was called up when Eoin Reddan was ruled out through injury.

“He is one of the best, if not the best scrum-half in Ireland,” Humphreys said.

“He does a great job at organising his defence, is good defensively and makes a number of forward breaks in each game he plays. Some of his breaks this season have led to tries and a good few penalties.

“They must not need him at the moment and, if so, they are a very lucky team.”

The 30-year-old says he has given up all hope of representing Ireland now that he is in the Aviva Premiership.

“I’ve severed all ambitions of playing international rugby by coming here,” he said. “Tomás is a few years younger than me and I’d be sure that he will be back in the mix again.”

He admits that, at Christmas last season, he would never have thought about leaving his home province of Ulster but the promotion of Paddy Jackson made him reassess his future.

“The way the selection went for the Heineken Cup semi-final and final gave me an indication of how things were going. [London Irish coach] Brian Smith was keen for me to join and I loved life in the Premiership with Leicester before. I knew that I would not get another opportunity.”

He flew back to Hillsborough, Co. Down, last Wednesday to attend the funeral service of former team-mate Nevin Spence, his father Noel and brother Graham.

“Nevin was a top quality player and he had a lot of potential,” said Humphreys.

“He was a key player in our run to the Heineken Cup quarter-final in 2010/’11 and put in match-winning performances. He is a massive loss to rugby and, more importantly, to his family and his community.”