Welsh team may get Lions clean sweep

Rob Howley: Back to SA?

It has emerged that nearly the entire Welsh international coaching staff could be chosen to work under Ian McGeechan in South Africa with the British and Irish Lions next year.

It was a little-known secret that both Warren Gatland and Shaun Edwards were on the list, but noe it seems that Rob Howley's name is also there, according the the Western mail.

The news creates a bit of a dilemma for the WRU, who would be understandably reluctant to let the entire trio go away with the Lions for seven weeks, especially given the negatives in the wake of a similar departure by then-Welsh coach Graham Henry.

There is also the fact that Wales are scheduled to tour Canada and the USA in that time, although it is likely that Cardiff Blues coach Dai Young could head that tour.

Either way, the addition of Howley would be welcomed by the former scrum-half, as it would re-unite him with McGeechan, with whom he toured South Africa as a Lion in 1997 before a shoulder injury ended his tour prematurely.