JEROME KAINO has been trolled on Twitter by Lions fans – but says he never meant to injure Lions star Conor Murray.
The All Blacks flanker crashed into Murray’s standing leg in the fiery First Test at Eden Park.
And furious Lions chief Warren Gatland blasted the World Cup winner for threatening the Irishman’s career.
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But Kaino has held his hands up and admitted he got it wrong just after Gatland was painted as a CLOWN for highlighting the treatment of Murray.
Talking about the incident for the first time, back-rower Kaino said: “It has popped up on my Twitter feed about a million times, so it is a bit hard to avoid it.
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“I guess people have their opinions on it. All I can say is it wasn’t my intention to go out there and target his planted foot.
“It is never nice when you have things done to you outside the laws, and the way we do things, it’s within the spirit of the game.
“We play hard and we play fair. That incident was a one-off. It is never our intention to go out and try and single anyone out.
“It was more timing. He is very quick getting the ball to foot, and there was a bit of timing there.
“But what has been said out there about malice and intention to hurt someone, that is never the case.
“It wasn’t my intention to hurt anyone, and to play outside the rules. I wasn’t cited. I don’t think I should have been.
“I didn’t go in to tackle him. I rolled into his leg. What I was trying to do, his swinging foot, if you can disrupt that, it’s like an ankle-tap, so you disrupt the kick.
“My timing was off, and I rolled into his planted foot, and that’s what I believed happened.”
All Blacks boss Steve Hansen blasted Gatland for his “desperate and predictable” gripes over the incident.
Asked if he would do it again, Kaino said: “Well, obviously not, because it would probably go from my Twitter feed to my Instagram feed!”
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