Robinson has SRU release clause if he lands Lions head coach post

SCOTLAND coach Andy Robinson may not yet be favourite to lead the British and Irish Lions to Australia in 2013, but he has a clause in his contract with the SRU that would allow him to be released for a year from the end of the 2012 RBS Six Nations Championship to undertake the job.

Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, is currently the clear favourite to land the position, with Ladbrokes bookmakers offering him at evens and his assistant Shaun Edwards 2/1 after Wales reached the World Cup semi-finals. Robinson is listed as third favourite, at odds of 6/1, along with Declan Kidney of Ireland, but much is likely to hinge on how the respective teams perform in the Six Nations.

Lions manager Andy Irvine said this week they would like a coach to come from one of the home unions. He also stated they would wait until after the 2012 championship to decide on the head coach, but would then ask permission from their union to have the man in place for a year.

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If Robinson is chosen, he could return to his post as Scotland coach after the tour, because he is under contract until 2015.

Having been involved in the 2001 and 2005 tours to Australia and New Zealand respectively, Robinson agrees with the decision to give the head coach a year to select the Lions squad and prepare for the tour and, while he refused to discuss any possible interest in the role this time, admitted he had raised the possibility when signing a contract extension with the SRU through to 2015.

“It is right that the coach has a year,” he said. “There is a lot of planning to be done for a Lions tour. I have it in my contract that I can be released for that.

“But it’s hypothetical. I’ve not been approached. The Lions will know who they want and they have said that they will decide after the Six Nations.

“I think that’s good but that will not be in coaches’ minds. What’s in a coach’s mind, or certainly my mind, is having a successful Six Nations. In the last two, we’ve under-performed in terms of results, and that’s what we’ve got to deliver this time – results.

“We have to break this unlucky loser’s tag. All of us in Scotland, from the supporters to players, coaches and management to the media, know how it feels to play the way we did and lose, and suffer that real drop in emotion. It really hurt and was hard to take [in the World Cup]. We’ve got to break that in the next two games, against England and Wales, and they are going to be two very good sides. But that is the focus for all of us now.”

Robinson has developed a strong affinity with the Lions and, with Edwards viewed as a an effective assistant rather than a head coach, Gatland being a New Zealander and Martin Johnson having left his role with England, Robinson is in a strong position if he brings Scotland success.