Rory Best ‘bitterly disappointed’ by Lions snub

Ireland hooker Rory Best was as shocked as his Ulster team-mates when news broke of his omission from the Lions squad to tour Australia in June.

The former Ulster captain lost out to the England pair of Dylan Hartley and Tom Youngs, as well as Welshman Richard Hibbard, when Warren Gatland named his 37-man squad to travel to Hong Kong later this month.

Ulster flanker Chris Henry was "really stunned" by the news. "Ask anyone from here and we are all just taken aback," he added this week. "I mean, it's definitely just their loss not taking him . . . I think his performances justified them taking him and the type person he is as well."

That didn’t stop Henry and co starting the “slagging” early, however, as Best told the Belfast Telegraph today.

“It will take a long time to get completely over it,” he admitted. “It’s very disappointing, but unfortunately that’s sport; you don’t always get your own way. Obviously if I was selecting the tour I’d be on it but that’s not the way it goes.

Best got no call to warn him of the news and instead learned of it by the awkward body language of those who found out while he and his team-mates trained on Tuesday morning.

"There was no advance call," he said. "Everyone watched in at 11 o'clock and we happened to be training. I suppose I just got wind of it by the fact that everyone was avoiding me and no-one was making eye-contact with me. As the session went on and we got further past 11 it became more and more obvious that it wasn't happening. Eventually Dan Tuohy just came up, shook my hand and said, 'Commiserations'. That was just it.

“People don’t avoid you when it’s good news. It was bitterly disappointing, it really was. I left training and went home, spent the afternoon with my family and just tried to not think about it. But at the end of the day it’s the pinnacle of anyone’s rugby career and you hope and pray you’re close.

“You know you’re close and you hope you’re going to be on that plane and when you’re told you’re not it’s obviously disappointing. This sport that I love so much has given me a lot of highs and unfortunately with highs come lows and you just have to take them and try to roll with it as best you can.”

For Best, the focus is now entirely on Ulster’s end to the season, and the welcome distraction of Friday’s game against Cardiff Blues at Ravenhill, where victory will guarantee a top of the table finish before the PRO12 play-offs.

“The good thing with where we are with this Ulster season is that you have to dust yourself down very quickly,” he added. “We trained today and the slagging nearly started immediately we took to the field. You get yourself ready. We have a massive game on Friday night – we have a league to turn round and win now.”