Give the British and Irish Lions more time on tour, not less, urges Warren Gatland

The Premiership and Pro12 finals will take place a week before the Lions’ first match

Warren Gatland has been announced as head coach for the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand (Getty)

Warren Gatland knows what he has let himself in for by taking the British and Irish Lions coaching job in New Zealand next summer, but that does not mean he thinks it is ideal. In fact he thinks the make-do and mend attitude to the tourists needs to change pronto.

The common wisdom is that he is taking on something that Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise’s character in Mission Impossible, would think twice about accepting and would probably still knock back.

Successive Lions bosses have had to bond a team of battered players in the time it takes to get through passport control at Heathrow and prepare to play the world’s best teams in their own backyards with about five minutes on the training pitch.

And it is the same again this time around despite coaches from Sir Ian McGeechan, in 1993, to Gatland himself in 2013 saying they needed more time with their players.

Time and again the leagues in Great Britain and Ireland have refused to shift their seasons. Next year the Premiership and Pro12 finals will take place a week before the Lions’ first match against a Provincial Union XV in Whangarei on 3 June.

The 12-year agreement between the Lions, the northern hemisphere stake holders and the southern hemisphere unions expires after the 2017 tour and Gatland is after some give and take in the next one whilst admitting there is nothing he can do about next year’s itinerary.

“You have got the two finals on the Saturday,” said Gatland. “We get together on the Sunday then fly on Monday, arrive on Wednesday and play our first game (on Saturday); so it is going to be a challenge. A third to a half the squad might be involved in the two finals.

Warren Gatland stands alongside the new British and Irish Lions jersey

“I have known all along for the last six months that this is the schedule - it is what it is and I am not complaining. I am talking about the future.

“I did a report (in 2013) and the last thing I said was I am wasting my time - I could have written this report in three words and the guy said ‘what are they?’ Preparation, preparation, preparation.

“If I had one more week's preparation and no midweek game before the first Test that would give me one week extra.

“I would like to think between the four home unions and the clubs we could protect it. We could plan for a Lions year. You have got the World Cup and then every two years after the World Cup, the Lions come around.

“How do we manufacture our games during the season? Maybe have a midweek game (in domestic rugby).”

That would free up one week for a few getting-to-know you sessions but you shouldn’t hold your breath on that one.

If, or when, the Lions return having been beaten by the world champions, the normal debates about whether they are viable in the professional era will start again. There is chat they could reduce the length of the tours but that is a non-runner according to Cheltenham Festival regular Gatland.

He added: “If I was sitting here now and we were going away and playing two warm-up matches and three Tests I don't think there would be the same interest.

Lions 2013 (Getty)

“Ten matches is about right and I would hate to see the Lions going for five matches. You would lose the mystique of what the Lions are all about.

“People write about the Lions team of the week and it is six or eight months away and it has created that interest. I don't think it would do that if we were just going on a five-match tour.

“Having been involved in this, I would hate to see the Lions die as an entity and not have the opportunity to prepare properly. I just think it is unique and it is special.”

And so is the mission facing Gatland, and it may be impossible – but he has accepted it.

Untouchable until it's earned. Canterbury’s new British & Irish Lions Jersey is available to buy at www.canterbury.com