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Sean O'Brien speaks his mind

Judge Jules

6CM Addict
Member
Haven't seen it myself, but Talksh!te's reporting that Sean O'Brien has fired a broadside at the attack coaching on the Lions tour, saying that if Howley in particular, and Gatland as well, had organised said coaching better the Lions could have whitewashed the Blacks in the Tests.

Views?
 
I'm the least qualified person here to discuss rugby (or almost any sport for that matter) but Gatland's teams always seem to be a bit one dimensional. Hit them with brute strength, see what happens.
 
Yeah, he's gotten a bit annoyed at the odd press conference when that's been put to him. There may be something in it, but TBH it's hard to be too critical of a Lions coach picking players on the basis (among other things) of sheer physicality when the physical challenge is so intense in the Southern hemisphere.

I'm in two minds as far as O'Brien's criticisms are concerned. On the one hand he was actually there (one of the players of the tour) and that gives his views a lot of authority. On the other hand the Blacks have just utterly massacred the Springboks, so the idea that we could have whitewashed them seems odd.
 
The Southern Hemisphere teams seem to be able to brilliantly blend the skills with the brute strength, something we can't seem to do. Even the Argies are at it these days.

I recently read The World Until Yesterday, by Jared Diamond. He points out the reason why the Maoris and Polynesians are generally so huge is because only the big, strong ones would have survived those epic sea crossings when the islands were first being populated.
 
Yeah - i think i said all along that the Lions squad was capable of winning the series. It was a missed opportunity rather than a success

Clearly O'Brien thought the same. He specifically referred to the training before the first test, which even Gatland admitted was a mistake.
 
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