O’Brien out for final as Schmidt takes issue with Gatland

Joe Schmidt has opted against speculating whether Sean O’Brien will miss the opening weeks of the British and Irish Lions tour after omitting the injured flanker from his squad of 23 for today’s RaboDirect Pro12 decider.

Warren Gatland ruled the Carlow man out of contention for this game and the Lions outings against the Barbarians and Western Force earlier this week and in doing so raised the ire of Leinster who claimed no decision had been made on their man.

“Again, as of Saturday evening, he’s no longer our player,” said Schmidt yesterday. “So it’s not for me to say. I think it’s unfortunate when people do say about players who aren’t theirs and so it’s not something I’d like to comment on.”