? Scot has led four Lions tours
? Manager Andy Irvine announces schedule
The Lions will appoint a head coach for the 2013 tour to Australia a month after the end of the Six Nations, and they have not ruled out Sir Ian McGeechan taking charge for a fifth time.
McGeechan, who first coached the Lions in Australia in 1989, said at the end of the 2009 trip to South Africa that he did not anticipate being involved in the game full-time four years later. He has since become Bath's director of rugby.
"Geech has not ruled himself out entirely," said the Lions' manager, Andy Irvine, at the announcement of a 10-match schedule for the 2013 tour that will start in Hong Kong on 1 June with a fixture against the Barbarians. "He did say 2009 would be his last tour, but I have spoken to him and it is not definitive. He is an option."
Irvine said the Lions coach would have to take a sabbatical of virtually a year if he were employed by a country or club so that he could devote all his attention to the tour and watch players from all four home unions in the 2012 autumn international series and the subsequent Six Nations championship.
"The head coach will have to be free of other commitments," said Irvine. "He has to be totally unencumbered in the season leading up to the tour. I think the current head coaches of Ireland, Scotland and Wales [Declan Kidney, Andy Robinson and Warren Gatland] would all be available, but the person we choose will not necessarily come from the home unions: we could look worldwide.
"The 2009 tour was a success on and off the field and a credit to all those involved. The series was lost narrowly and the Lions were unfortunate with injuries in the second Test. Continuity is an important factor when it comes to considering the management team, especially with such a tight schedule, and it can help if coaches were involved in the previous one, but there is also a view that it is good to spread the Lions' experience. It is a dilemma."
Irvine said the tour would start in Hong Kong to break up the journey and did not rule out playing Argentina, who join the old Tri-Nations next year, in the future. "It is about spreading the rugby gospel, but we also have to fit into a tight fixture calendar."
The Lions will play all five Australian Super 15 teams, Tests in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and a fixture against a combined New South Wales and Queensland Country XV. The Wallabies' coach, Robbie Deans, will consider making his squad available for the warm-up games.
"You do not want to deny players a special experience like this and decisions will be made on an individual basis," said Deans. "Some players never get the chance to face the Lions because they only visit once every 12 years and the trip is clearly in the back of the minds of our players because so many have recommitted to us."
The 2009 tour was blighted by poor attendances in the warm-up matches with ticket prices set high and the provincial teams shorn of international players.
"The Australians are very good at marketing, as they showed in the 2003 World Cup," said Irvine. "There is already huge interest among Lions supporters and there could be as many as 30,000 following us."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/nov/28/ian-mcgeechan-lions-australia-2013
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