ROB HOWLEY HAS HIS SAY ON LIONS CONTROVERSY
Rob Howley has found himself one of the most talked-about men in rugby over the last month or so. There have been critical comments from Sean O’Brien about his coaching on the Lions tour, claims about him in Lee Byrne’s autobiography and the news that he
A lot of people have had a say about you recently, notably Lee Byrne and Sean O’Brien. What’s your response to what’s been said?
With regards to Lee Byrne, I deny the allegations. I’m very surprised at his comments.
What about Sean O’Brien’s comments that Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell were the people running the attacking shape on the Lions tour and that you struggled to get things across?
I Whatsapped him and he came back to me and said he was more than happy to speak. I finally caught up with him on the phone last week.
Obviously I was disappointed to hear his comments and felt there would have been a better opportunity to raise those comments on tour.
In fairness, he said he felt he enjoyed the tour, had a good time and a lot of the good stuff he said wasn’t reported. It was obviously disappointing the comments he aired regarding myself.
From my perspective, we tried to empower the players. The New Zealand tour was very different to the two previous Lions tours, where we were in the hotel for longer.
The midweek games challenged us as a group of coaches far differently to South Africa and Australia. Having worked with both Johnny and Owen in Australia, any sensible coach would have used their experience and included them in the decision making.
As coaches, it’s great to work with the best players in the world. It helped us to develop what we thought was a fantastic achievement.
Was it a culture shock for O’Brien, with Ireland being a more prescriptive and controlling environment under Joe Schmidt?
I can’t really comment on what happens in their environment.
When Ospreys, Leinster and Saracens got knocked out in their semi-finals, I had the opportunity to sit down with Owen, Johnny and Dan Biggar in the lead-up to the tour.
We were able to put a lot of foundations in place and be further down the preparation line. The tour itself, I have never experienced anything like it. Travel days were generally a Wednesday and a Sunday, we were playing on a Tuesday and Saturday, so we had two coaching days within the week.
When you look at the preparation time and what we achieved on tour I am very proud as a coach and it was disappointing to hear Sean’s comments.
Thankfully, we spoke on the phone for a good 20 minutes and no doubt look forward to the Wales-Ireland game in the Six Nations!
Did he accept your points? He apologised. Any coach will tell you that the relationship you have with the players is pretty important. I’ve have always valued my respect and integrity within the game and the relationship I have with players. I am very proud of that relationship that I feel I have and it was disappointing.
The tour to New Zealand was far different as well compared to South Africa and Australia in that we had a senior players’ forum on the other two tours. Because of the nature of the tour and the schedule, we did not really have that group this time.
We, as coaches, met up with the decision-makers of the team, whether Jamie George or Ken Owens or the line-out caller or the half-backs. Ultimately, they drive the team and when you are coaching the best players in the northern hemisphere they have to drive the team. That is important.
Our message early on in the tour was the foundation of what we hoped was a winning series. The short amount of time we had together and the schedule meant we came away not knowing whether to smile, cry or laugh at the end when the final whistle went.
When you look back a few months after and see how New Zealand played in the Rugby Championship, it just shows how much our performance can be respected in world rugby.
With hindsight and given O’Brien’s comments, would you do anything differently?
You always learn in terms of the time-frame and time you have with players and how you coach. It is really hard.
No-one really understands until you are involved in a tour of that nature.
When Sean’s comments came out, I looked back at what I could have done differently, etc. Maybe sitting down and having more time with the forwards and talking about the attack shape, etc.
When I look back and the time-frame of the first three weeks and the benefit of having the likes of Johnny, Owen and Dan available at the Vale and in Ireland and in the first week.
Sean was on rehabilitation and had two sessions in three weeks. That is not pointing the finger because he came through injuries and had to be man-managed.
In the first three weeks when we were trying to put in the foundations for attack, Sean was doing his rehabilitation with the physios and medics to make sure he was up and running.
The first game he played was against the Crusaders. The only time he took part in any sort of rugby session was in Auckland. He missed a lot of the foundations while doing a lot of rehab work.
Do you personally have any regrets about the way you coached the team?
The schedule was the schedule and in the short amount of time we did the best we could. I would love to have had more time. Warren Gatland as head coach dictated what we needed to do in certain elements of the sessions. That was it really.
Having spoken to Sean, how is the relationship now?
You move on. I have the greatest respect for Sean O’Brien and I thought he was outstanding on the Lions tour. Sean has made his comments and it is tomorrow’s fish and chip paper, isn’t it. It will soon be forgotten. I have got a lot of time for Sean O’Brien.
They were his comments made at the time. He has apologised and he told me he had said a lot of good things in the interview, but unfortunately he made those comments. Have you got a thicker skin than when you started coaching? It is getting thicker!
How close were you to picking Sexton and Farrell at 10/12 in the first Test?
In fairness, Ben Te’o played particularly well. No-one could argue with the first selection. Ben got picked on form.
Johnny was always trying to give us a nudge about that 10/12 axis he wanted to play in.
Many press reported that we had got it wrong when we didn’t pick Ben for the second Test. It was reported as a huge gamble and a last-ditch selection. Both Johnny and Owen were on the same page.
Owen Farrell has got the same DNA as his father. He’s a winner with a great feel for the game.
I have a lot of respect for the three 10s on the tour. Dan Biggar stood