'It's nothing to do with do I feel like I need an English coach?'
Warren Gatland insists he has assembled the best available British and Irish Lions coaching team. 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. Gatland had planned to take Andy Farrell, Steve Borthwick and Graham Rowntree to South Africa, but all three were forced to withdraw from Lions consideration.
It means there is no English representation on the coaching team as England’s worst Six Nations performance on record also saw Eddie Jones’ lieutenants John Mitchell, Matt Proudfoot and Simon Amor all overlooked. “It’s nothing to do with ‘do I feel like I need an English coach?’, it’s about me picking who I think are going to be the best fit for myself,” Gatland said.
“It is people who I want to work with, people I’ve worked with in the past and people I think will work well as a group. No one made an issue of it in the past when we haven’t had Scottish coaches. It’s not about that. 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.”
Gatland confirmed that his preference for the three-Test series against South Africa was for Ireland head coach Farrell to run the defence, Borthwick of Leicester to prepare the forwards and Munster’s Rowntree to take charge of the scrum, but by late last week, it became clear that Gatland would have to activate his contingency plan.
The Lions won't have to spend on shampoo or barbers after Gatland revealed the identity of his four bald assistantshttps://t.co/QCGCvE3ZJa
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 13, 2021
“There’s no doubt that it’s been eventful. 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. “I had spoken to Gregor a number of weeks ago about Steve Tandy as a possibility and he was very complimentary about him. We’ve felt their defence has probably been the best in the Championship last year and this year.
“That for me was a relatively easy one, already knowing that Andy was unlikely to be available. Steve and Graham were different. Steve 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. My philosophy has always been ‘family first’.
“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”. “I am very pleased to have assembled such a high-quality coaching team,” Gatland said. “A Lions tour is a unique challenge so it’s important to have some continuity in the coaching group, but it’s also important to have 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. Their response was unbelievable, brilliant. Steve said to me ‘Oh my God, I’m shaking at the knees, I’m just so excited’. Robin said ‘I don’t know what to do with myself, I’m walking round the apartment’. I thought their response was exactly what I wanted to hear in terms of them coming on board.”
“It has been pretty whirlwind and I am blown away by it. It was pretty surreal to start with" https://t.co/rrXFlmUU7Z
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) April 13, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
Pick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
15 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
4 Go to commentsYes Sir! Surprising, just like Fraser would also have escaped sanction if he was a few inches lower, even if it was by accident that he missed! Has there really been talk about those sanctions or is this just sensational journalism? I stopped reading, so might have missed any notations.
4 Go to commentsAI is only as good as the information put in, the nuances of the sport, what you see out the corner of the eye, how you sum up in a split second the situation, yes the AI is a tool but will not help win games, more likely contribute to a loss, Rugby Players are not robots, all AI can do if offer a solution not the solution. AI will effect many sports, help train better golfers etc.
45 Go to commentsIt couldn’t have been Ryan Crotty. He wasn’t selected in either World Cup side - they chose Money Bill instead. And Money Bill only cared about himself, and that manager he had, not the team.
26 Go to commentsYawn 🥱 nobody would give a hoot about this new trophy. End of the day we just have to beat Ireland and NZ this year then they can finally shut up 🤐
15 Go to commentsTalking bout Ryan Crotty? Heard Crotty say in a interview once that SBW doesen't care about the team . He went on to say that whenever they lost a big game, SBW would be happy as if nothing happened, according to him someone who cares would look down.. Personally I think Crotty is in the wrong, not for feeling gutted but for expecting others 2 be like him… I have been a bad loser forever as it matters so much to me but good on you SBW for being able to see the bigger picture….
26 Go to commentsThis sounds like a WWE idea so Americans can also get excited about rugby, RUGBY NEEDS A INTERNATIONAL CALENDER .. The rugby Championship and Six Nations can be held at same time, top 3 of six nations and top 3 of Rugby championship (6 nations should include Georgia AND another qualifying country while Fiji, Japan and Samoa/Tonga qualifier should make out 6 Southern teams).. Scrap June internationals and year end tours. Have a Elite top six Cup and the Bottom 6 in a secondary comp….
15 Go to commentsThe rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
84 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
4 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
15 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
14 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
15 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
15 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
15 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to comments