Sean O'Brien is highly critical of the Lions coaching methods
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Sean O'Brien has claimed the coaching style of the British and Irish Lions cost them a famous series win in New Zealand.
The Irish flanker, who played in all three tests, said the team were "over-trained" and were jaded after heavy workouts on the Thursdays before the Saturday tests.
"To be honest with you, I'd be critical of [the coaching style]," said O'Brien. "I think we should have won the tour and we probably should have won it comfortably enough. I think there's a lot of learnings to take from the tour in terms of the coaching set-up."
It's heavy criticism aimed at Warren Gatland and his coaching team.
O'Brien went on to criticise the direction of Gatland's coach Rob Howley. "If I was being critical of any coach it would be Rob. [He] struggled in terms of getting his point across," he said.
O'Brien also claimed that Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell started to drive the direction of the backs in training, as the confusion from Howley was apparent throughout the squad.
Warren Gatland came in for his fair share of criticism
A highly respectable series draw away to arguablly the greatest team in world sport silenced many of Gatlands critics. And there were many in the lead up to the series.
From the beginning of his second tenure as Lions Head Coach, Gatland faced criticism from all corners of the British and Irish Isles. Many critics complained about his evident favouritism towards his Welsh stars.
Considering they had fallen by the way side since their back to back titles in 2012/13, many people were outraged at the amount of Wales players called up. Especially with many of the emerging Scottish stars and some English stalwarts being ignored.
Although England had most players picked for the squad, there were a few surprising ommissions from the world's form team.
Since the RWC 2015, England had lost only once and had just won back to back Six Nations titles. This came after a 4-0 series whitewash in the Autumn Internationals and a 3-0 series whitewash away to old foes Australia.
James Haskell was a surpise ommission from the Lions saquad.
But even without the likes of Joe Launchbury, Danny Care and Haskell, the Lions came away from New Zealand with a highly respectable draw. These high profile ommissions added to the criticism of Gatland, however, when he called up four Welsh fringe players to bolster the tiring squad.
Pulling on a Lions jersey is the ultimate accolade for any Home Nation rugby player. You have to earn it by being the best player of four nations in that position, and it comes around only every four years. The four Welsh players, known very little outside their own family circle never mind Wales, were called up because they just happened to be Down Under.
Unquestionably, Gatland had belittled the integrity of the Lions jersey. It's without dispute that some of the English and Scottish ommissions would have walked to New Zealand just to be considered. It wasn't to be.
The New Zealand press were unequivocal in their criticism of their countryman, to boot. But Gatland, known for his broad shoulders and sometimes outspoken behaviour, soaked it all up and almost did the unthinkable.
Both captains lift the trophy after a drawn series
A series win in New Zealand would prove to be one step too far, but a draw over three matches was highly resectable and surely Gatland thought it had silenced all his critics. Until Sean O'Brien that is.
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