O’Brien’s view on Lions coaching mishaps is wrong but he’s entitled to voice his opinion

By Nick Cain
Sean O’Brien is one of the fiercest competitors in the game, yet his view that the 2017 Lions coaches were responsible for the touring side’s failure to win a three nil series victory over New Zealand this summer seems a little fanciful.
However, I am strongly in support of O’Brien’s right to have his say as not just a member of the squad, but a senior player in the Test side, even if I do not agree with his conclusions. Suppressing debate is not a good thing in most walks of life, and sport is no exception even if it sometimes sits uneasily with an all-for-one, one-for-all team ethos like that of the Lions.
O’Brien is right that the only way things improve is if lessons are learned from mistakes, and therefore that it is important to give any significant issues an airing.
The Irish flanker’s contention that head coach Warren Gatland and backs coach Rob Howley came up short appears to reflect genuine frustration at the fact that the Lions had to share the series 1-1 with the world champions after the third Test finished in a 15 -15 draw.
O’Brien is a tremendous player, and he had a very good tour, including providing the finishing touch for the brilliant Lions try in the first Test. However, hindsight is always a wonderful thing in sport, and my sense is that O’Brien is falling into the trap of being wise after the event.
His claim that Howley failed to provide a coherent attacking plan has not been supported by anyone else as yet, but the Leinster flanker claims the Lions backs coach had a problem communicating what he wanted. He also contends that, as a consequence, by the second and third Tests Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell decided the attacking strategy.
O’Brien said: “If I was being critical of any coach it would be the fact that Rob (Howley) struggled with the group in terms of his attributes of trying to get stuff across, whereas Johnny and Owen drove everything the second week in our attack and had a better plan in place.”

O’Brien added that he was speaking out because of the importance of the Lions having the best of the best when it comes to coach selection for South Africa 2021. “Coaching-wise they need to make sure they have the best coaches in the best positions – attack, defence, forwards, on a Lions tour.”
Gatland also came in for criticism from O’Brien for flogging the players in training before the first Test, meaning they came into the game “definitely a bit flatter”, and then not doing enough before the third Test. “We did a triple day on Thursday before the first Test. You can’t do that. If you’re playing a game with Tullow (O’Brien’s club) we wouldn’t do that.”
O’Brien added: “In the second week we got it perfect. We did a lot less. Training was short and sharp, and we were fresh come the weekend. Then in the last week we probably had too many days off at the start of the week.”
However, the Irish flanker concedes that the reason for the intensity ahead of the first Test was because coaches wanted to make sure the bases were covered – and that, for me, is the nub.
The reality is that the Lions were always chasing their tails in terms of Test preparation because of the brutally demanding short schedule they faced going into the Test series. The Lions forwards definitely looked flat during the first Test at Eden Park, but that was probably as much about trying to get basic organisation in place with only three weeks to prepare for the All Blacks, as well as the demands of the Maori game the previous weekend, as it was about a serious conditioning miscalculation.
If O’Brien had misgivings of such magnitude about the Lions training approach you would have thought that as a senior player he would have voiced them at the time. However, tour manager John Spencer says that this did not happen despite telling the players that his door was always open.
My reading of it is that in very difficult circumstances the Lions made many more right decisions than they made wrong ones.
As a result they deservedly drew a series against a team at the peak of their powers as double world champions. That they achieved it despite ludicrously truncated preparation before playing the All Blacks meant that they only ever played well in patches during the three Tests.
This was irrespective of the attacking shape given them by Sexton and Farrell, with their dual play-maker 10-12 partnership only ever good in parts. For example, Farrell’s superb goal-kicking was in a different league to his play from hand, especially in the final Test.
It’s easy to understand O’Brien’s frustration because the 2017 Lions were a very talented outfit – the equal at least of the New Zealanders – and when they clicked they had the world champions on the rack.
However, the reason that they were unable to hit their lethal attacking stride more consistently was not down to inadequate coaching. It was due more to the Lions lack of team-work and familiarity – as well as the defensive attributes of the All Blacks.