Blues lock Patrick Tuipulotu dropped from Lions clash after late to training

Patrick Tuipulotu's failure to notify Blues management that he would be late to training at their Alexandra Park headquarters on Monday has cost him a place in the team to play the British and Irish Lions tonight.

Tuipulotu, an All Black lock who has already endured a roller-coaster of a season given he was a late starter due to a failed, and then passed, drugs test, had been named on the reserves bench at Eden Park.

That failure to make the starting line-up ahead of Gerard Cowley-Tuioti and Scott Scrafton itself raised eyebrows.

Tuipulotu, replaced by Jimmy Tupou after what has been described by the Blues as a breach of team protocol, would have added significant impact from the bench, but coach Umaga clearly decided the 24-year-old didn't have the consistency in form needed to displace either Cowley-Tuioti or Scrafton.

Apparently this incident isn't the first time Tuipulotu has found himself at odds with Blues management this year.

But whatever the reasons behind his breach, the fact that he won't get a chance to play in this unique match, and stamp his own name in history, will be hugely disappointing to himself and Umaga.

At his best, Tuipulotu is a devastating ball runner and defender. A spinal disc bulge recently caused him to miss several matches and while he played well against the Cheetahs at Eden Park on his return, there was a hesitancy in his game that perhaps hasn't been there before.