Coach has four weeks to put together a squad capable of overpowering the All Blacks for the first time since 1971
Picking the best British and Irish Lions squad to tour New Zealand has long been a fraught job. In 1993, as now, England had just lost to Ireland in Dublin on the final weekend and the selectors were required to gather the following day. “We spent the next eight hours arguing,” recalls the then assistant coach Dick Best. “At one stage we had 21 England players on the tour but because we’d lost to Ireland it got whittled down to 17. Afterwards Ian McGeechan said: ‘I’m not going again unless I can select the team.’”
Related: Six Nations 2017 verdict: Guardian writers choose their highs and lows
The hardest thing is normally the last four or five players, with the right personalities, people who are going to be good tourists
Related: New Zealand media on England loss: ‘Stuffed plastic bags in need of a trolley’
Continue reading...