Sean O'Brien has defended his comments about the Lions' preparations for their summer tests with New Zealand.
It's after Lions chief Chief Executive John Feehan claimed criticism of the coaching team and their training methods were unfair.
"I said all along that I think we had the best coaching team available and I think they proved that in what we achieved in New Zealand.
"To draw a series with the All Blacks, who had not lost a Test match at home for eight years was a remarkable result, and Warren and the coaches deserve huge credit for that.
"People will always have their views on what could have been done better but the fact is that, against all the odds and with limited preparation time, this squad became only the second Lions team in history to either win or draw a series in New Zealand in 13 attempts.
"That achievement cannot be underestimated."
O’Brien shared his frustration with Off The Ball’s Oisin Langan earlier this week: "To be honest with you I'd be pretty critical of it," he said.
"I think we probably should have won the tour and we probably should have won it comfortably enough.
"I think the first week we definitely over-trained on the Thursday - maybe the coaches were maybe panicking a little bit about getting the information into us and the workload.
"I think we did nearly a similar thing on the last week. Maybe it's more of a coaching point of view in terms of taking lessons. Maybe less is more sometimes on a tour like that.
"We did a triple day on the Thursday before the first test."
Warren Gatland has reportedly text Sean O’Brien to seek a meeting to discuss his criticsm of the coaching set-up.
O'Brien took to twitter on Thursday night to try and quell the controversy: “Some people have focused on what I feel we could have done better instead of what we did well,” he said. “I have nothing but respect for Warren and the whole coaching team.”
— Sean O' Brien (@SeanOBrien1987) September 21, 2017
