Schmidt and Cotter in talks on Lions tour

By Peter Jackson
The Lions are to interview Joe Schmidt and Vern Cotter as well as Warren Gatland for the job of running next year’s tour of New Zealand.
“We are talking about interviews any time now and we want to be totally inclusive,” Lions manager John Spencer told The Rugby Paper yesterday. “After the various interviews, we will make a final decision with announcements in September.”
The all-Kiwi shortlist will not be extended to include the outstanding candidate on current form, Eddie Jones – nine straight wins as England coach and counting.
Spencer revealed that he has held talks with the RFU over the Australian’s refusal to be distracted from his avowed goal of winning the next World Cup.
‘“You always wonder if there might be a change of mind because sometimes you don’t know what’s going to happen next,” Spencer said.
“I have discussed it with England and I am sure if there was any chance (of Jones changing his mind), they would tell me immediately and they haven’t done that.
“You never know with these things but Eddie has made it clear he wants to take England to Argentina at the end of next season.  We have accepted that. It is not an issue.”
Jones’ refusal to stand raises the unprecedented prospect of all three Celtic coaches working with a squad almost certain to feature a Lion’s share of England players.
Schmidt, 51 in September, and Cotter, 54, ran a successful operation in tandem with Clermont before going their separate ways to Ireland and Scotland respectively.
Gatland, 53 in September, may still be the favourite but Schmidt would ‘do a phenomenal job’, according to no less a judge than Brian O’Driscoll, captain when the Lions last toured New Zealand in 2005 and who Gatland famously dropped for the decider against the Wallabies eight years later.
The IRFU say they will consider releasing Schmidt from Six Nations duty should the Lions want him as head coach.   In return, his employers will want him to sign a new deal through to 2019 replacing the existing contract which runs out this summer.
“Joe’s a top-class coach,” O’Driscoll said.  “His attention to detail is what makes him stand apart.  He’s a great thinker and he’d make the Lions very competitive in what is the most difficult environment of all.”
It will be made all the more difficult by a distinct lack of preparation time.  The Aviva Premiership and Guinness Pro12 finals will be played on May 27 immediately before the Lions depart and the French Top 14 final on June 3, the day the Lions play their opening match.
“We have a farewell dinner on the Sunday, we meet on the Monday, fly out on the Tuesday, get there Thursday and play Saturday,” Spencer said.
“I wouldn’t have thought that was the best arrangement in terms of player welfare.
“The Lions have been very concerned about the severely restricted preparation which makes the tour still more difficult.
“We have resigned ourselves to the fact that this is something which needs to be resolved at the same time as the global season.
“The Lions tour is very, very important to the Southern Hemisphere. It’s also very, very important to the players of Britain and Ireland.   We are tending to ignore that importance.”
Only one player, Leigh Halfpenny of Toulon, is likely to be affected by the clash of the Top 14 final, assuming his club get there.
Spencer, who has just been discharged from hospital following treatment to a knee infection, is adamant that the Lions will make no exceptions to the rule that all selected players are fit and ready to fly out on May 29, or not at all.
“There is a burden on the player here in that he has to make up his mind,” Spencer said. “Many have release clauses and it’s up to them to come to some agreement with their clubs.”
WRU chairman Gareth Davies has responded to calls from Lions’ greats Phil Bennett and JJ Williams for changes to Gatland’s chain of coaching command after Wales had shipped 27 tries in their last five matches of the season. Bennett spoke out about “something badly lacking in this Welsh set-up”. In The Rugby Paper last week, JJ asked: “Is Gatland still the right man?”
Their criticism followed the reappointment of Wales coaches Rob Howley and Robin McBryde for four more years.
“We sat down with Warren to find out where he stood and did he want to refresh the team,” Davies told BBC Radio Wales.
“He gave it a lot of thought.   He was comfortable with the progress that Rob and Robin had made in the previous two years and justified their continuation.”