Lions flanker blames Gatland for not easily beating ABs
The British and Irish Lions didn’t win this year’s test series against the All Blacks because they were worked too hard by coach Warren Gatland, according to flanker Sean O’Brien.
Experienced Irish forward O’Brien says while drawing the three-test series against the world champions was a creditable result, they should have won.
In an interview on Irish radio station Newstalk, O’Brien accused New Zealander Gatland of overtraining the players at the end of a long Northern Hemisphere season.
The tourists were widely regarded as moral winners following the 15-15 draw in the third test at Eden Park.
Having gone into the series as heavy underdogs, they lost the first test in Auckland before victory in the second in Wellington.
O’Brien, who featured in all three tests in the series, believes they had the players to perform better.
“To be honest, I’d be pretty critical of it because I think we should have won the tour and we probably should have won it comfortably,” he said.
“There’s the best players in the world on a Lions tour. I know you are playing the best team in the world but with the quality and strength in depth we had, we probably should have won.”
Gatland was widely perceived to have quietened his critics in his native land, with his team and tactics widely criticised at the beginning of the tour.
However, O’Brien said the longserving Welsh coach pushed the players too hard.
“The first week, we definitely overtrained on the Thursday and maybe the coaches were panicking a little bit about getting the information into us,” he said.
“On the first week [of the first test], we had a triple [session] day, [the] lads’ legs were heavy on the Thursday and we were playing the All Blacks on Saturday.
“There was probably no need for that but it’s just the way it was managed. We had said it, at the time, and they pulled back a bit.”
With a second series victory in New Zealand up for grabs in the third test, Gatland made the same mistake, O’Brien contended.
“We did nearly a similar thing in the last week. So maybe it’s more [from] a coaching point of view, in terms of taking lessons,” he said.
“Less is more sometimes on a tour like that, rather than trying to pick things up at the end of the week.
“I think in the second week, we got it perfect. We did a lot less, kept training short and sharp, and we were fresh come the weekend.”