Nick Cain: Lions must find room to blood British coaches

When the Lions assistant coaches are announced on December 7 they will represent a few shoots of growth in a desert in which no Home Unions coaches are considered to have the expertise or the character required to do the top job.
This mirrors the landscape below the Lions where Southern Hemisphere coaches are the men in charge, with a few of the homegrown variety thrown-in for good measure as the support staff.
As things stand every Home Unions national side has a head coach who learned his trade, initially at least, in the Southern Hemisphere, whether Warren Gatland (New Zealand) for the Lions and Wales, Eddie Jones (Australia) for England, Joe Schmidt (New Zealand) for Ireland, and Vern Cotter (New Zealand) for Scotland.
The Scottish Rugby Union have decided that they will break the mould by installing a true-blue Scot, Gregor Townsend, as Cotter’s successor at the end of this season. However, if for some reason the appointment does not work out, you can bet a penny to a pound that the first place the SRU trawl for a replacement will be the Southern Hemisphere.
This is not a knocking piece aimed at Gatland, Jones, Schmidt or Cotter, all of who are well worth the sumptuous salaries they are paid, with their recent results speaking volumes for their expertise.
Gatland is an incumbent winning Lions coach, Jones has secured England’s first Grand Slam in a decade and is on a twelve-match unbeaten run including a unique 3-0 tour whitewash of Australia, Schmidt has presided over Ireland’s fist win over New Zealand in 111 years of trying, and Cotter is pulling Scotland up by the bootstraps.
It is fair to say that that hugely impressive combined track-record has made a vital contribution to making the Home Unions competitive on the international stage in a way they have not been for longer than most of us care to remember.
However, the elephant in the room cannot be ignored. Namely, why are there so few English, Irish, Welsh or Scottish coaches with the track-record and reputation to be the Lions mastermind in the way that Ian McGeechan, Syd Millar and Carwyn James were?
It appears almost as if the Home Unions have concentrated so much on elite players, whether in terms of access, pay scales or development, that they have completely taken their eye off the ball when it comes to nurturing top-end coaches.
The RFU are a case in point. They have muddled through with no clear coaching succession plan or selection structure since Clive Woodward stormed out of the Twickenham gates in 2004, and it took a complete about-turn to find a solution to an almighty mess.
The full swivel in question was the abandonment of the RFU’s sacred mantra to appoint only an Englishman as head coach, with Ian Ritchie wisely beating a path to Jones’ door after the World Cup crash, snatching him from the clutches of the Cape Town-based Stormers.
Whether England’s succession plan is any clearer now, with Englishmen Paul Gustard and Steve Borthwick riding shotgun beside Jones is hard to predict. What we do know is that both were seen as specialists (Borthwick set-piece, and Gustard defence) before joining England, and neither as yet have head coach credentials.
Which brings us back to the Lions, and the coaches about to be picked to support Gatland.
It should not be beyond the wit of the Home Unions to ensure that those chosen include not only specialists, but homegrown coaches with the credentials to take over the Lions head coach mantle from Gatland.
Into that category comes Mark McCall, the Ulsterman who guided Saracens to a double last season, and his equally sharp forwards coach, Alex Sanderson.
The same is true of Dai Young at Wasps – who is also a strong contender to take over as Wales coach when Gatland departs – and Rob Baxter, whose astute coaching and selection haveforged Exeter into a genuine Premiership force.
Andy Farrell’s hat will be back in the ring as defence coach after being part of the 2013 Lions coaching set-up and re-asserting his credentials with Ireland, while Townsend’s name has been doing the rounds for months now as 2017 Lions attack/backs coach.
However, there are rumours that he feels conflicted because he will also just have taken over as Scotland coach in the summer.
On the specialist front Lee Blackett, who has made big strides as an innovative backs coach at Wasps, could be a dark horse, as could Joe Worsley, who has been making his name as defence coach at Bordeaux-Begles.
The Lions have produced some of the greatest British and Irish coaches, and the 2017 coaching selection panel should ensure that legacy – and the succession planning it involves – is not overlooked when they appoint Gatland’s assistants.
Some homegrown uplift where British and Irish coaching is concerned is long overdue.