The Lions Brains Trust

zAbbo

British & Irish Lions Tour Manager Gerald Davies and Head Coach Ian McGeechan announced today in Dublin the coaching and key backroom staff for the 2009 Tour to South Africa.
The Grand Slam winning trio of coaches Shaun Edwards, Warren Gatland and Rob Howley will join McGeechan in South Africa and will be responsible for Defence, Forward and Backs coaching respectively.

This talented group of internationally experienced coaches are joined in the management team by Craig White who will be responsible for the Physical Conditioning of the players; Doctor James Robson, who will lead the medical team; Rhys Long who will oversee Performance Analysis and Greg Thomas who heads the media team.

219 days...

youcancallmeal

Strong Welsh contingent, no doubt the final 15 will reflect this

zAbbo

Strong Wasps contingent

toomevara

zAbbo wrote: »

Strong Wasps contingent

Given wasps appalling start to the season this year hope this doesn't bode ill....

zAbbo

toomevara wrote: »

Given wasps appalling start to the season this year hope this doesn't bode ill....

Yeah, But I think they're lacking the personnel, Staunton at full back is just a terrible situation to be in.

Aidric

A good coaching set up but no doubt a slight welsh bias can be expected.

toomevara

New jersey unveiled, distinctly underwhelmed...mine dates from the last SA tour, reckon I'll hold onto it....

Stev_o

Now the only question remains will Hector record another show about a Lions tour

villager

god i hope not it has ben great recently the lack of hector on tv. the man is a pain in the arse

zAbbo

We need the same lads who done the behind the scenes back in '97

None of this DOC cooking stew crap.

Jersey looks a bit too Munster for my liking, hope they have a nice away/training version.

toomevara

Stev_o wrote: »

Now the only question remains will Hector record another show about a Lions tour

Oh Christ! Hope someone drugs the twonk and locks him in a basement until the whole thing's over, last thing we want is that huge bell-end leprechauning around the place....

redroar1942

Stev_o wrote: »

Now the only question remains will Hector record another show about a Lions tour

Screw Hector hopefully they'll drag John Bently out of whatever bar/jail he's in and make another Living with lions series like the 97 version. Without doubt the greatest rugby documentry of all time.

il gatto

That set up looks a bit lobsided all right. I know Wales are 6Ns champions and all, but all the same:( Could end up with Wyn Jones in the second row, Hook at fly half and the punchable (literally) Phillips at scrum half, with Williams on the wing (fair enough) and people like Lee Byrne at FB and Henson in the center. If any one of their dreadful front row make their squad, there is no hope.

jam_on_toast

il gatto wrote: »

That set up looks a bit lobsided all right. I know Wales are 6Ns champions and all, but all the same:( Could end up with Wyn Jones in the second row, Hook at fly half and the punchable (literally) Phillips at scrum half, with Williams on the wing (fair enough) and people like Lee Byrne at FB and Henson in the center. If any one of their dreadful front row make their squad, there is no hope.

hook is better than anything we've got. as is philips.

Chucky the tree

Why shouldnt they have a welsh contingent? Do people think EOS or Brian Ashton deserve a spot?! :pac:


Also Zabbo said, it's a wasps thing.

Downtime

toomevara wrote: »

New jersey unveiled, distinctly underwhelmed...mine dates from the last SA tour, reckon I'll hold onto it....

The famous red jersey. They can't exactly do very much with it. I look forward to seeing the training ones.

il gatto

jam_on_toast wrote: »

hook is better than anything we've got. as is philips.

They are great players but if there's a few marginal decisions and they go to Welsh players, it'll cause ructions and nobody wants to see one country dominate the starting 15. I don't think hook is necessarily better than ROG either (they both have strong and weak points) , but it's more likely he'll be fighting for the spot with Cipriani rather than O'Gara.