Ian McGeechan - Talks Lions

Ian McGeechan, British & Irish Lions Head Coach first toured with the elite from the British Isles as a player in 1974. 

“When I was a Lion as a player, the tours were four months long,”  “You went out with a manager and a coach and that was it.  All the other support staff, if you wanted a doctor or a physio or whatever, were just the local South African wherever you were staying.  Even since 1997, when I was last fully involved, the support staff, and commercially, everything around the Lions is at a completely different level now.”


“I think that is important. You have to understand each other and know each other. When you get towards a Test match and you start to work under pressure, you need to have that understanding of each other. It is always a challenge for the coaching team. I don’t think you can say, ‘This is going to be the Test team’ from week one. That is wrong."

“My intention is to give the player the opportunity to put himself in line for Test selection. As coaches, we have to have an open mind and leave that selection until quite late, even the week before the Test match.”

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