Last week, Sean O'Brien's words in regards to his views on how the 2017 Lions tour went garnered plenty of attention.
The Leinster and Ireland flanker had spoken frankly about his belief that the Lions could have done better in New Zealand during the summer tour and potentially won all three tests against the mighty All Blacks rather than just drawing the series as transpired.
Speaking to our own Oisin Langan, he had said: "To be honest with you I’d be pretty critical of it. I think we probably should have won the tour and we probably should have won it comfortably enough. I think there’s a lot of learning to take from the tour in terms of the coaching setup as well and from a player's point of view in terms how we dealt with things, but it’s a weird one I suppose, drawing a series".
His remarks had led to a retort from the Lions management.
Tonight, we got the take of Brian O'Driscoll as he joined us for our Friday night BODcast.
"I think you don't want to shy away from players having a good level of honesty because we give out about them being dull and offering nothing from a soundbite point of view and I was very much part of that crew because you represent a team and you don't want to give anyone an opportunity to come back at you," he said.
"So for his honesty in doing that, I applaud him. At the same time, from a selfish point of view, what was in it for Sean O'Brien? I don't know what win he gets out of that. There's nothing other than antagonising the coaches that were involved.
"He could have privately said those things and aired his grievances to the management, to the Lions board or whatever on the QT and the point would have still hit home. But to do it publicly, he's drawn all this heat on himself, he's now persona non grata in Wales because he's had a go at their head coach and Rob Howley. He's probably created an awkward situation any time he bumps into either of those two coaches going forward of which will happen regularly. I just don't see where the win in all of that is."
Listen to Brian's views in full on the podcast player.
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