O'Brien blames Lions coaching panel for drawn series with the All Blacks

Sean O’Brien feels the Lions were capable of beating the All Blacks comfortably over the three leg series but insists that the squad’s preparations were all wrong.

He recounts one particular instance where the team had a triple training session just two days prior to the start of the series, insisting it was a mistake to overload the team so close to the first match, a match the Lions would ultimately go on to lose 30-15.

Speaking to Irish radio station Newstalk, O’Brien said:

“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.”

“The first week, we definitely over-trained on the Thursday and maybe the coaches were panicking a little bit about getting the information into us.”

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“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. Less is more sometimes on a tour like that, rather than trying to pick things up at the end of the week.

“And probably from a players’ perspective, probably to be stronger and say ‘look, we don’t need that, we’re ready to rock. We just need to be short and sharp’.”

He went on to say that the team were proud of their efforts in New Zealand but considering the squad they had at their disposal, should have come away with a series win.

“There’s definitely proud moments in there. We can be proud of what we did out there at times.

“Not to be negative about it or anything, it was a great tour and everything. But at the end of the day I think, with the squad we had, we should have beaten them.”