Warren Gatland is expected to next week be unveiled as Lions coach for the 2021 tour of South Africa.
He’s set to lead the best of British and Irish rugby for a third successive tour following talks with Lions chiefs.
Gatland, fresh from plotting Wales’ Six Nations Grand Slam, engineered a commendable drawn Test series for the Lions against world champions New Zealand two years ago.
That came on the back of the 2013 conquest of Australia. He was also key lieutenant to head honcho Sir Ian McGeechan during an epic Test series with South Africa in 2009.
If the Lions triumph against the Springboks, Gatland will make history by becoming their first coach to be unbeaten in series with all the southern hemisphere big three.
Gatland steps down as Wales boss later this year but wants to go out on a high by steering them to a first World Cup triumph.
Wales have reached a semi-final and quarter-final since he assumed command in 2008, as well as winning four Six Nations titles, three with Grand Slams.
McGeechan is the only man in Lions history to have previously taken up the head coaching role on three consecutive tours: between 1989 and 1997.
Gatland was linked with France when he leaves Wales but a move over the English Channel was scuppered when a referendum of the country’s amateur rugby clubs ruled out a non-Frenchman becoming head coach.
The New Zealander has also been heavily linked with the England job should outspoken Australian Eddie Jones leave before his contract expires in 2021.
Gatland had poured cold water on being Lions coach in South Africa after being given a rough ride by the New Zealand media two years ago. You can read what he said here.
But time is a great healer and the job was his again if he wanted it. Lions chairman Jason Leonard, a 2003 World Cup winner with England, will make the announcement next Wednesday at a press conference in London.
