GATLAND HAPPY HE HAS BEST AVAILABLE
LIONS head coach Warren Gatland yesterday admitted he was not taking his preferred coaching ticket to South Africa this summer but insisted he had assembled the best backroom available for the series against the world champions. The Kiwi confirmed that his preference for the three-Test series against South Africa was for Ireland head coach Andy Farrell to run the defence, Steve Borthwick of Leicester to prepare the forwards and Munster’s Graham Rowntree to take charge of the scrum but all three withdrew from consideration. Instead, Scotland boss Gregor Townsend will mastermind the attack and his international colleague Steve Tandy will oversee the defence, both of them profiting from a strong Six Nations notable for impressive away wins over England and France.
Completing the trio of Lions coaching debutants is the appointment of Leinster’s Robin McBryde to take charge of the forwards, while Neil Jenkins of Wales returns for his fourth tour as kicking coach. By last week, it became clear that Gatland would have to activate his contingency plan. ‘I’ve known for a long time that Andy Farrell wasn’t potentially going to be available to us,’ said Gatland in reference to Ireland’s summer tour. ‘Steve (Borthwick) is an incredibly honourable person and he felt that Leicester is his day job and he needs to be there at the helm. ‘With Graham it was a different situation. He’d been trying to get his family to come over from Leicester to Limerick for the last couple of years. ‘They’d finally moved over and he was trying to get them settled in. He just felt that being away for eight weeks, possibly 10 weeks with quarantine as well, was too much.’
Gatland, who is considering adding another coach at a later date, insists the Lions will benefit from ‘new voices and a fresh perspective’. ‘The buzz I really got was having the phone call with Robin and Steve Tandy, asking them to come on board. ‘It’s just about trying to pick who you think are the best people to come into your environment, people who I think I can work well with and hopefully put a good team together.’