Leinster Rugby coach Joe Schmidt admits he isn’t too worried about the injury that forced British & Irish Lions centre Brian O’Driscioll to quit last weekend’s RaboDirect PRO12 semi-final after only 13 minutes.
O’Driscoll, who is meeting up with his Lions teammates for the first time at Syon Park today, suffered a back spasm early in the game and was taken off as a precaution. Fellow Lions centre Gordon D’Arcy also left the field in the second half with a calf injury to leave Leinster coach Joe Schmidt counting the cost of his latest victory,
Leinster meet Stade Francais Paris in the Amlin Challenge Cup final in Dublin on Friday and will then line-up against Ulster Rugby in the RaboDirect PRO12 Final at RDS on Saturday, 25 May.
“We will have a look at Gordon and assess him in the next 48 hours and find out the real extent of the problem. Brian’s back tightened up and he couldn’t fully stretch out,” said Leinster coach Schmidt.
“He wanted to carry on, but it wasn’t really an option against a back line like Glasgow’s. I wouldn’t be too concerned, and I’m normally concerned about everything, so that’s a good sign.
“We will get the glue and sticky tape out so we can put a team together for Friday and the final the week after.”
Schmidt decided to give Lions back row man Sean O’Brien another week to sort out his injury worries ahead of the clash with Stade Francais.
“We didn’t want to risk playing Sean against Glasgow, but hopefully he will be alright by next Friday. I don’t know we will be doing a lot in the first half of the week and we’ll probably restrict our training to Tuesday and Wednesday,” said Schmidt.
The RaboDirect PRO12 final will be a repeat of the 2012 Heineken Cup final with Leinster taking on Ulster Rugby at the RDS. Ulster beat the Scarlets 28-17 at Ravenhill on Friday night and will be hoping to make it a hat-trick of wins over their Irish rivals this season.
