Former Irish international Isaac Boss said he does not believe New Zealand players intentionally tried to injure Lions scrum-half Conor Murray during Saturday's first Test in Eden Park.
The Lions coach Warren Gatland said yesterday he would ask referees to clamp down on the "dangerous" harassment of Murray's kicking game.
Gatland alleged that New Zealand players were diving "blindly" at Murray's standing leg whenever he attempted a box-kick in the Lions' 30-15 loss in Auckland.
These comments drew a stinging response from New Zealand coach Steve Hansen, who phoned into a sports radio show to register his objection.
Hansen labelled Gatland's comments "predictable" and suggested they were indicative of desperation.
"It's really disappointing to hear it, because what he's implying is that we're going out there to intentionally injure somebody and that's not the case. I guess he might be a bit desperate," Hansen told Radio Sport yesterday.
RTÉ analyst Boss argues that the New Zealand players will certainly have targeted Murray's box-kicking game but says he doesn't believe there was a deliberate attempt to cause injury by diving at his standing leg.
"I would say they were definitely targeting Conor (Murray) in the sense that the box-kick was always going to be a key tactic throughout the match and the best way of dealing with it is to stop it at source," Boss told RTÉ Sport.
"I would agree that there was definitely no malice intended.
"I know as a nine that you are at most vulnerable when kicking and Conor himself would know that so you expect a lot of pressure in those situations.
"I think they weren't intentionally going out to injure anybody in that situation."
Boss acknowledged that Gatland's first job was to protect his players and suggested that the Lions coach may have been trying to alert the referees to the tackling on Murray in the hopes of wringing more penalties out of the officials in the second test.
"Gatland has a job to protect his players and I guess there is an element where he's making the ref more aware of it (the tackling on Murray's kicking) so if they get a penalty in the next match then he's done his job and won that mind battle."
Gatland's accusations were reminiscent of Munster's angry complaints after their 14-12 Champions Cup win over Glasgow in Scotstoun in January.
On that occasion, Murray himself expressed his deep displeasure at Glasgow's approach and said he felt that their players had targeted his standing leg when he kicked the ball.
