Defensive maestro likely to join Gatland

Steve Tandy has emerged as the frontrunner for the British and Irish Lions’ defence coach vacancy after Warren Gatland was forced into a major reshuffle of his coaching team.

The Lions head coach’s plans were thrown into disarray last week as three members of his original coaching ticket withdrew from the tour to South Africa.

Scotland defence coach Tandy, a Welshman, is in line to replace Andy Farrell, the Ireland head coach, who pulled out to focus on his country’s summer tour to the South Pacific.

Robin Mcbryde, who worked under Gatland when he was in charge of Wales, is the favourite to be named forwards coach.

Tandy also worked closely with Gatland during his time as Ospreys head coach. He subsequently spent two years as defence coach for the Waratahs in Super Rugby before taking up a similar role with Scotland in 2019.

Scotland’s defence has improved dramatically since his appointment.

In the 2020 Six Nations, Scotland conceded the fewest points and in this year’s tournament they were second only to Ireland.

With Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend also on board as Lions attack coach, Tandy’s expected appointment may help the chances of Scottish hopefuls for the 36-man squad, which will be named next month. No more than three Scotland players have been selected in an initial Lions squad since the successful 1997 tour to South Africa.

Steve Borthwick, the Leicester head coach, also turned down the role as forwards coach after learning of the Lions schedule. Borthwick stood to miss the first three weeks of the Tigers’ preseason and potentially even more if a quarantine period applied.

Another Englishman, Graham Rowntree, who was expected to reprise his role as scrum coach, pulled out for family reasons after it was confirmed that the tour would go ahead in South Africa rather than the British Isles.

At such late notice, Gatland is likely to turn to another tried and trusted option in Mcbryde, who was Wales forwards coach for 11 years under Gatland and is now assistant coach with Leinster. Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby represents an alternative.

Neil Jenkins is still in line to assume his role as kicking coach. Even with his close working relationships with Tandy, Mcbryde and Jenkins, the late shake-up is far from ideal from Gatland’s perspective. He had hoped to reunite many of the staff who gelled so successfully during the 2017 drawn series against the All Blacks.

The new team will need to quickly form connections for a tour that seems to be continually shifting shape because of the pandemic.

According to reports in South Africa, the latest disruption appears to threaten the Rainbow Cup. The new tournament is meant to feature four South African franchises competing against the Pro 14 teams from April 24 to June 19, but there are doubts as to whether they will be allowed to travel to the UK.

— Telegraph Group UK