O’Brien claims Lions paid for shortcomings in coaching

Sean O’Brien says the British and Irish Lions should have “comfortably” beaten New Zealand this summer and claims the coaching team did not get preparations right.

The Ireland and Leinster flanker criticised the approach of the Lions coaching set-up, led by Warren Gatland, and felt the way the team prepared contributed to the three-Test series being drawn.

O’Brien was particularly critical of attack coach Rob Howley, claiming he was set in his ways and that midfield pairing Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell were “running our attack shape” by the end.

“The coaches have a lot to answer for in terms of our attack rather than Johnny and Faz trying to drive it,” he said.

“If I was being critical of any coach it would be the fact that I think Rob struggled with the group in terms of his attributes of trying to get stuff across whereas Johnny and Owen drove everything the second week, for instance, in our attack and had a better plan in place.

“So I don’t know if it was people not buying into what he (Howley) was about or whatever else. That’s the hard thing about a Lions tour as well; getting everyone to listen to a coach that was probably set in his ways.”

O’Brien also felt that the build-up to the first Test on June 24 in Auckland had been too intense and that the same mistake was almost repeated before the drawn final Test.

“The first week we definitely over-trained on the Thursday – maybe the coaches were panicking a little bit about getting the information into us and the workload,” O’Brien told Off The Ball.

“I think there’s a lot of learning to take from the tour in terms of the coaching set-up as well and from a player’s point of view in terms of how we dealt with things, but it’s a weird one I suppose, drawing a series.”

Picture: Getty. Critical of coaching team: Sean O’Brien.