British and Irish Lions: Sean O'Brien never feared missing third Test despite citing

The Irish flanker admitted he was surprised to be cited for the challenge on Waisake Naholo

Sean O'Brien never felt his third Test participation was in doubt (Getty)

If the British and Irish Lions can find a way to beat New Zealand and write their names in the record books, they could well thank the man who let Sean O’Brien off the hook last weekend when he escaped a citing for a swinging-arm challenge without sanction.

The Irish flanker admitted he was surprised to be cited for the challenge on All Blacks wing Waisake Naholo after the second Test last weekend, with video replays showing that the Highlanders back was momentarily knocked unconscious when O’Brien’s forearm made contact with his chin.

The All Blacks coaching staff were less than impressed with O’Brien being let off the hook, and even more upset with the lack of explanation as to why he was not punished for what they believed was a clear infringement that merited further punishment, given there was no sanction during the Test.

O’Brien though insisted he was innocent, and after learning of the incident only through the eventual citation last Sunday, he stressed he never felt that his third Test participation was in doubt.

“Looking back at it, it was fairly innocuous and I would have been very surprised if I had received a ban for something like that. But I went through the process and got the result,” O’Brien said after being retained in Warren Gatland’s starting line-up for this Saturday’s encounter.

“It was fine. In my own head, the legalities of the whole thing and the ins and outs of it with the barristers and all that crack, that is what they are doing, but for me I knew there was no intent involved in it, I knew I didn’t do it on purpose so I was happy in my own skin know that.

“But obviously going into a hearing you are a bit nervous because you don’t know what you are going to get and you don’t know how they are going to react to something like that. At the end of the day, the result was the right thing.”

The availability of O’Brien will have been music to the ears of Gatland, who must have already been considering the back-up options to losing the form flanker. The 30-year-old O’Brien not only finished one of the all-time great tries in Lions history in the first Test, but he has proven a thorn in the side of the All Blacks in the breakdown and been one of the better carriers going forward.

There were, of course, comparisons to O’Brien’s ban during the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The Leinster forward missed the quarter-final defeat by Argentina when he was cited for punching France lock Pascal Pape, although for O’Brien himself the two incidents did not relate as he knew he had done wrong two years ago.

“Ha! Sitting for nine hours in a room at the World Cup, it was pretty intense all right but it was a different scenario this time around,” he recalled. “The World Cup, I knew I'd done wrong, I admitted to that so I had to take my medicine. This time around it was a different story.”

Luckily for the Lions, the disciplinary panel of Adam Casselden SC, David Croft and former Munster player John Langford agreed, and sent O’Brien happily on his way following a near-four hour hearing in Wellington. If he can now lend a helping hand to a first Lions series win in New Zealand in 46 years, he will not be the only happy Irishman celebrating come Saturday night.