Warren Gatland has picked his coaching team for the British & Irish Lions tour this summer. But who are they, where did they come from and what will they bring to South Africa?
Neil Jenkins, kicking coach
The 49-year-old Welshman is so much more than just a coach to the goalkickers, even if, as the third-highest points scorer in Test history behind Dan Carter and Jonny Wilkinson and the first ever to reach 1,000 points, he is well qualified to offer sage advice in that area.
Jenkins takes charge of a team’s entire kicking strategy, whether that is working on box kicks with the scrum halves, kick-and-chase and general aerial work with the back three, exit plays from the 22 or kick-off receipts with forwards and backs. “Kicking will win us games,” is his oft-heard mantra and that is especially likely to be the case against South Africa.
He is hugely respected and experienced, having played as a Lion in 1997 (when he moved to full back to allow Gregor Townsend, now a fellow Lions coach, to play at No 10) and 2001, before coaching on the 2009, 2013 and 2017 tours. He helped Wales win grand slams in 2008, 2012 and 2019.
Robin McBryde, forwards coach
The former hooker won 37 caps for Wales and featured on the 2001 Lions tour to Australia before returning home early due to injury. McBryde, 50, was a quietly spoken but solid and reassuring presence in Warren Gatland’s Wales coaching team. There was often a smile or a joke in press conferences, but he was always content to play a low-key role.
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McBryde, who was born in north Wales and mainly played for Llanelli, won Wales’s strongest man competition in 1992 and is the Grand Sword Bearer of Gorsedd, Wales’s ancient gathering of bards, having succeeded the legendary Ray Gravell, the former Wales and Lions centre, who passed away in 2007.
This will be McBryde’s first Lions tour as a coach, having left the Wales set up after the 2019 World Cup to join Leinster, a move that irked Gatland. “From my point of view, it’s disappointing because he’s got 13 years of IP (intellectual property) that’s suddenly left Wales and gone over to our closest rivals,” he said.
Gregor Townsend, attack coach
It was close to a seamless shift for Townsend to go from a precocious young talent making his international debut at the age of 19 to becoming the Scotland head coach at 44 after five-years running Glasgow Warriors.
There have been bumps along the way, among them feeling he had to turn down the Lions four years ago — the first time they came calling for him to take a coaching role — because it clashed with his first game in charge of Scotland. More recently, there were doubts about his future after Scotland were bumped out of the 2019 Rugby World Cup at the pool stage.
He has come through all the challenges and is now the most successful coach Scotland have had, with a 56 per cent win record, and this season he oversaw wins in London and Paris for the first time since 1926.
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Steve Tandy, defence coach
It has taken the 41-year-old Tandy only three years to go from being sacked by the Ospreys to being offered a role with the Lions, a turnaround in fortune remarkable for its thoroughness as well as its speed.
The redemption and his conversion from head coach to defence specialist started with a trip to Australia, where he was involved with the NSW Waratahs. What started as a flying visit turned into a contract offer and a season of Super Rugby, where he helped turn a club notorious for its leaky defence into one renowned for rarely conceding tries.
That caught the attention of Townsend, the Scotland head coach, who was looking for a defence specialist and brought Tandy on board. In his first Six Nations, Scotland went from a side that had conceded 17 tries the season before to conceding just five and his reputation was made.
