McGeechan looks to repeat roaring success with the Lions

Whenever anything goes seriously wrong in sport these days, as in politics, the phrase you're most likely to hear after the event is "we've learned our lessons".

Management-speak rules in professional sport and the response to being outplayed, out-thought and out-manoeuvred is to claim that the defeat would somehow do the team, or individual, some good in the long term.

Never, ever admit that you simply got it horribly wrong.

Anyone who witnessed the 2005 British & Irish Lions tour implode before their eyes would have struggled to accept that one single "positive" (management speak again) could have been salvaged from the car crash the trip became.

The 3-0 drubbing was so comprehensive, and the spirit of the squad so utterly broken, that some were led to question if the Lions could ever regain their pride.

So it will come as sweet music to the ears of Lions fans everywhere that Ian McGeechan, head coach for next summer's tour to South Africa, has indeed learned one very valuable lesson.

Sir Clive Woodward's ill-advised decision to split the tour party in two in New Zealand - effectively guaranteeing almost half the squad they would not play a Test match before a tackle had been made in anger - undermined the whole ethos of Lions touring.

McGeechan, whose 1997 vintage are still the last Lions tourists to win a series, witnessed at first hand the demoralising effect that dividing the squad had on the 2005 party.

While his team of dirt-trackers performed admirably, in stark contrast to the Test squad, McGeechan knew in his heart that Woodward had made a cardinal error of judgement.

The same mistake will not be repeated, as McGeechan embarks on his fifth Lions tour as a coach - a record that may never be beaten.

"There will be one group of players all trying their utmost to make the Test starting XV," McGeechan tells International Rugby News.

"We have to give players enough of an opportunity to show they can do justice to a Lions Test jersey.

"That is going to be vital to the success of the tour.

"That's the way I have always prepared and is undoubtedly one of the, if not the, key principles of the whole tour.

"When the players do get selected they have to have an open mind, as do the coaches. I have got no idea what my starting XV will be at this moment in time."

McGeechan, now 62 years old but showing no sign of wanting to step away from rugby's fast lane, has a genial nature that masks a burning desire for success.

His open, smiling face should not be mistaken for a lack of inner steel.

Last season saw McGeechan add another trophy to his bulging cabinet as Wasps recovered from a disastrous start to their Guinness Premiership campaign to outclass Leicester in the final - in Lawrence Dallaglio's last professional appearance.

To watch McGeechan, in tandem with Shaun Edwards, cajole and manage Wasps' battered players through the season was to watch two masters at work.

Having spent three years as director of rugby at the London club, McGeechan has formed a rock solid relationship his first lieutenant Edwards, who looks certain to join up with his boss as one of the Lions coaches next summer.

McGeechan is keeping his cards close to his chest as to the make-up of his coaching set-up, but it will be a major surprise if Edwards and Warren Gatland are not two of the key members of it.

"I've had some good conversations already and I certainly have an idea of who I want. I'm not rushing into it though," he says.

"A successful coaching team is all about getting the chemistry right. You need people who enjoy working together and feel at ease in each others' company. That translates to the players incredibly quickly, and the opposite is of course true.

"It's so important that the group is together as one united squad."

McGeechan's inherent understanding of the need for unity is why the Lions committee have returned to the former Headingley and Scotland player.

There will be no spine chillingly cringe-worthy songs about "The Power of Four" and no dodgy wrist bands sent out. Just a good old fashioned attempt at reviving the age old touring values of camaraderie and friendship, where Irish, Welsh, English and Scots - in no particular order - lay down their rivalries and join together to form a sum that is greater than its parts.

"Maybe we'll go out as a squad for a beer," McGeechan says.

The 1997 tour has gone down in Lions folklore as one of the greatest ever. Ask any of the players who made up the squad and you could lay a pretty sizeable wager they will tell you it was one of the greatest experiences of their rugby lives.

McGeechan's visionary selections, allied to Jim Telfer's near sadistic approach to coaching his forwards, were fundamental to the success of the whole trip.

Picking players like Jeremy Davidson and Eric Miller, along with a host of returning former league players such as Scott Gibbs and Alan Tait, raised eyebrows at the time but proved to be inspired in the long term.

"So much has changed in South Africa on so many levels since we were there in '97. The game is so professional now whereas back then it had only just turned from amateur," McGeechan says.

"The first 20 to 25 players are pretty easy to pick. The last 10 often make the difference to the success of a tour or otherwise. Getting those 10 right will be vital."

Sure to be among the first names on McGeechan's squad list, fitness permitting, will be Danny Cipriani, who the Scotsman has helped to nurture into one of the most outstanding prospects in world rugby.

His sickening leg break in last May's Guinness Premiership play-off semi final against Bath is still all too fresh in the memory and McGeechan is desperate not to put any undue pressure on the 20-year-old fly-half.

"The key with Danny is making sure his rehab is effective and he does everything the medical team tells him to do," McGeechan says.

"If we got it right in the first couple of months then he will see the benefits of it in the long term. Clearly he's a special player and everyone is hopeful of him making a full recovery."

The British and Irish Lions deserve Cipriani in their ranks and will no doubt need him if they are to stand a chance of beating the world champions in their own backyard next year.

This story was sourced from International Rugby News