Interview: Andy Irvine, British and Irish Lions tour manager and former Scotland international

Style matters but Andy Irvine, the man who’ll choose the British and Irish Lions coach, tells Iain Morrison a series win is long overdue

WHILE Europe’s top Test players, coaches and management enjoy some well-deserved down time after their efforts in the Six Nations, for one man the real work has only just begun. Andy Irvine will manage the British and Irish Lions tour to Australia in 2013 and he must sit down with his committee in the coming weeks and pick a coach. The Wallabies boast Robbie Deans, arguably the best brain in world rugby, and Irvine knows he cannot afford to get this one wrong.

The Scotland legend insists that results are not the only yardstick he uses but they play their part and Wales’ Grand Slam-winning coach Warren Gatland remains the bookies’ favourite even if, as has been widely noted, having an opinionated Kiwi leading the Lions to Australia is an incident waiting to happen. Moreover, another Kiwi, Graham Henry, made a pig’s ear of it 11 years ago.

A poor run of results probably excludes Andy Robinson from Irvine’s thinking, although the former full-back insists that Scotland’s season was not the total disaster it has been portrayed. However he also admits that he was at Twickenham when the Scots were being pummelled on the ropes in Rome.

“It was an interesting Six Nations with some high-quality games,” says Irvine in response to the suggestion that 2012 won’t go down as a vintage year.

“Scotland missed a trick because England were there for the taking. We won’t dominate an England pack like that again for a very long time. We played well that day and I think the score in Cardiff flattered Wales. If we’d secured the restart at the start of the second half it could have been a very different game.

“We played some decent stuff against France and the fans thought that we’d turned the corner but we conceded three soft tries against Ireland after Richie Gray got us back into that match. It probably wasn’t a vintage year but the positive thing to come out of it was that there were a few young guys who made a big impact. Richie Gray has established himself as a Test-class player, David Denton enjoyed a good run and it was nice to see Mike Blair back on form.”

Irvine also thinks England were lucky to put 30 points on Ireland, who were fatally undermined when loosehead prop Tom Court had to come off the bench for tighthead Mike Ross, at which point the Irish scrum crumbled faster than their banking system.

Nothing if not a traditionalist, Irvine was thought to prefer a home nations coach for the Lions, which is why many pundits had Robinson pencilled in ahead of the Six Nations – provided Scotland enjoyed a modicum of success. Unfortunately, that proved beyond them.

After four successive losing tours, the Lions face a credibility gap, although the last trip to South Africa went some way towards reviving the brand. The Lions lost again but the manner in which they did so gladdened the heart. Irish stand-off Ronan O’Gara, for one, must still be wondering what on earth he was thinking when he conceded that late, late penalty in the second Test to give Morne Steyn the winning kick.

Irvine knows the importance of winning but insists, like a latter day Cyrano de Bergerac, that he’d like the Lions to put on a show while doing so. He points out that the hard grounds in Australia reward teams who run the ball and, in that department, he is concerned by one thing above all else.

“Overall I am a happier man than I was two months ago,” claims Irvine. “Some players have come through and impressed and some established players are being pushed by the younger ones. The only area of concern for me is pure blinding pace because Australia have four or five seriously fast backs.

“James O’Connor, Will Genia and Kurtley Beale are all world-class, magical players but they do make mistakes. Australia will score tries against any team in world rugby so we have to be prepared to score tries, too, rather than stick it up the jumper and kick it. Australia play a loose, attacking game so I think it’s going to be box office!

“We played a lot of rugby in South Africa [in 2009] but, oddly enough, when we won in 1997 [their last series win] we lost the try count 9-3. The last time in South Africa we lost the series narrowly but won the try count 7-5. I like to win and I’d rather do so with a little style but, after all this time, a win is vital.

“We will have a very good front five who should be able to stifle the Aussies but the selectors will have a nightmare in the back row. The entire back row of Ireland and Wales are in contention, England have strong breakaways and several of the Scots are putting their hands up. It’s a nightmare but it’s a great nightmare to have.”

Recent Lions tours have fallen flat, none more so that Sir Clive Woodward’s disastrous tramp around New Zealand in 2005 when he packed his oversized squad with English players who were widely perceived to be past their sell-by date and then split the squad into midweek and Saturday teams, each with their own coaching staff, physios and medics. The result was a “blackwash”.

Four years later Sir Ian McGeechan did much that was right in South Africa, although he is not believed to be in the running this time round. Still, Irvine admits to having picked his brains over the last few months – “you’d be crazy not to” – and he insists that Geech’s template is the one that he favours for Australia next year. One manageable squad, one group of coaches and the Lions’ traditional all-for-one, one-for-all ethos. However, once the coach is appointed it’s difficult for the management to start imposing restrictions.

“The coach has to be able to appoint his own staff,” says Irvine. “There has to be an element of trust and we certainly can’t impose anything or anyone on him.

“What we can do is reason with him, remind him of the ethos and tradition of the Lions because, in an ideal world, we would have a reasonable playing contingent from each of the four countries.

“There is a need for balance and respect and understanding.

“In my view the 2009 tour lost the series but, in every other respect, it was highly successful and that’s the ethos we want to emulate. If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

“To my mind Geech and Gerald [Davies] restored the respect to the Lions in 2009. We lost the series but few of the thousands of fans that travelled would have anything but the utmost respect and support for what we achieved out there.

“Now it’s time to take things to the next stage and win.”