British and Irish Lions eye Leinster’s Joe Schmidt as Gatland back-up

The Lions are to consider a second New Zealand contender for next year’s three-Test series in Australia – Leinster head coach Joe Schmidt.
Kiwi Warren Gatland, due back in Wales tomorrow for the first time since breaking both heels in a fall four months ago, is to discuss his prospective coaching team with senior management officials over the next few days.    The belated confirmation of his appointment in charge of the ten-match tour will be made in London next week.
The Lions will give Gatland carte blanche when it comes to picking a coterie of specialist coaches which will almost certainly include England’s scrum expert, former Leicester prop Graham Rowntree.
Schmidt’s name has cropped up during informal talks within the Lions hierarchy who hope to name their full coaching team before the end of the year. Gatland will want the best men for the job, irrespective of where they are working and where they come from.
Schmidt’s track record speaks for itself. Since joining Leinster two years ago, he has won back-to-back European Cups and turned the Irish province into the most stylish team in the history of the competition.
One defeat in 16 European ties emphasises the irresistible nature of Leinster’s Total Rugby as played under Schmidt and how far he has gone in what skipper Leo Cullen calls ‘Joe’s relentless pursuit of excellence’.
Jonny Sexton, currently in pole position as the Lions Test stand-off, speaks in glowing terms of the 46-year-old Kiwi, as does the peerless Brian O’Driscoll. At 33, Ireland’s durable captain aims to make a fourth Lions tour as a fitting finale to an epic career.
Schmidt, who addressed last month’s IRFU coaching conference on ‘developing self-belief and motivation’, has resisted all offers of alternative employment. He says nothing will prevent him completing his contract in Dublin which runs out at the end of the season by which time Leinster may well have completed a hat-trick of European Cup victories.
Gatland’s other leading candidate as backs coach, Rob Howley, filled the role under Sir Ian McGeechan on the last Lions tour, to South Africa in 2009. The two have been working hand-in-glove since Howley finished his playing days at Wasps by stealing the European Cup from Toulouse at the end of the 2004 final at Twickenham.
If the New Zealander decides to stick with the man he knows best, Howley’s release would be subject to approval from the WRU.    They say they are willing to support the Lions ‘wherever practically possible’.
They have kept shtum about their deal hammered out with the Lions for Gatland’s release.    The agreement does not preclude their head coach from requesting other Welsh coaches on behalf of the Lions.
Shaun Edwards, whose partnership with Gatland goes back to their Wasps days, is a clear favourite to make his second Lions tour as defence coach.  Wales will be paid compensation while Gatland takes a detached view in the course of assembling a squad of 35 or 36 players.
He will be on Lions duty for ten months until the end of the tour next July but will regain control of Wales for their last two pre-Christmas home matches, against the All Blacks on November 24 and the Wallabies seven days later.
Howley, acting head coach during Gatland’s enforced absence in Australia at the end of last season, will continue in that role for Wales’ next two matches, against Argentina and Samoa, and throughout the Six Nations.
PETER JACKSON