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21st Sep 2017

Sean O’Brien heroically sticks to his guns following harsh criticism

Ben Kiely

Sean O'Brien

All this fuss over Sean O’Brien not being content with drawing a winnable series.

Sean O’Brien’s fiercely competitive nature was one of the main contributing factors to him being a stand-out Lion in the 2017 series against New Zealand. He fought his way back to fitness, he fought his way into contention then he fought for every yard once he took to the pitch wearing the famous jersey.

Now that the war is over, ‘The Tullow Tank’ has a different kind of fight on his hands.

O’Brien was frustrated at some of the lacklustre coaching on tour, and for that, he has been described as a ‘let down’ to his fellow Lions. This is, despite the fact that he backed his teammates wholeheartedly and called it ‘a great tour’.

All he wanted was for the Lions to fulfil their potential. In order to do that in South Africa, he believes that the next Lions team should go to South Africa with the very best coaching staff available.

The series wasn’t won and he feels it could have been. He’s not pointing the finger of blame in any one direction, he just feels the unit could have worked better as a whole.

There would be something seriously wrong if he thought that the team couldn’t make improvements, even if they had won the series.

That’s exactly what he’s laid out in plain English in a statement on Twitter.

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