Andy Farrell has included Simon Easterby, Andrew Goodman and John Fogarty on his coaching group for this summer's British and Irish Lions tour to Australia, with Paul O'Connell now expected to take charge of Ireland for their summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal.
The trio of Irish assistants had been expected to be included on the Lions coaching ticket, and are joined in Farrell’s backroom team by Richard Wigglesworth and John Dalziel.
This morning’s announcement is yet to confirm the exact roles each assistant will fill, with Easterby expected to run defence, Fogarty on the scrum, Dalziel with the forwards and Goodman and Wigglesworth focusing on attack.
There is considerable Irish influence on the coaching staff with Ireland’s head of athletic performance Aled Walters and head of analysis Vinny Hammond having been confirmed in the group two months ago. Former IRFU performance director David Nucifora is also a part of the staff.
Former England scrum-half Wigglesworth started his coaching career while still playing, when he assisted Canada as a kicking coach for the 2019 Rugby World Cup, and was a player/coach for Leicester Tigers when they won the Premiership in 2022.
His coaching career was further fast-tracked in December 2022, when he was made interim head coach of the Tigers following Steve Borthwick and Kevin Sinfield’s departure to the England job, although he would follow the pair to the national set-up in the summer of 2023 and has been working as England’s attack coach for the last two years.
Scotland’s forwards coach Dalziel has been tasked with coaching the pack on the Lions tour. The former Scotland Sevens head coach has been an assistant to Gregor Townsend at Murrayfield since 2020.
"Putting together a Lions coaching team is an honour and a privilege - and the five phone calls made to this group of coaches reminds you just how special and unique it is," Farrell (above) said.
"This coaching group has versatility and are interchangeable in their skillset, which is a vital asset to have on a Lions Tour.
"I think we have a fantastic mix and every one of these guys will bring their own character and personality to the team."
Farrell is due to name his playing squad on Thursday, 8 May, and revealed that an initial squad of 75 players has been drawn up for the summer tour.
"We came up with about 75 men or something like that. Every single one of them deserves to be on that list," Farrell said.
"There's going to be a hell of a lot of good players who don’t make the plane and that’s exactly where we want to be. We want to be as competitive as we possibly can.
"Obviously, we’re going to be watching other games that are coming up."
The heavy Irish backroom influence means the IRFU will have to supplement bodies into their own coaching staff for the summer tour of Georgia and Portugal.
Easterby filled in as interim coach for the Six Nations, winning four of five games, and it’s expected that O’Connell will step into that role this summer, with Johnny Sexton also still involved.
Munster’s Mike Prendergast, Leinster’s Sean O’Brien and Connacht’s Mark Sexton could be recruited to assist during the summer, having done so for Emerging Ireland in their game against England last month.
Fogarty’s absence means they will also have to bring a scrum specialist into the group from one of the provinces, or look to the advice of recently appointed performance pathway scrum coach Seamus Toomey.
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