Andy Farrell gathered his newly appointed British & Irish Lions coaches at the upmarket Rosewood hotel in London on Monday. They spent most of Tuesday chewing the fat, then sunk their teeth into a steak dinner at Hawksmoor restaurant. Bread was broken, the next significant signpost towards the summer tour of Australia ticked off.
If there were no major surprises on his coaching staff – three from Ireland and one each from Scotland and England – it felt telling that while you could make a pretty good guess, no one has yet been assigned specific roles. Farrell wants his staff to work in harness rather than worry about precise remits in isolation, to build cohesion rather than concern themselves with detail just yet.
