JIM Telfer has been retired from rugby for five years, but the former Scotland and British and Irish Lions coach has been handed a scouting role ahead of the Lions' return to the country in which he helped strike their last success.
Ian McGeechan is back as head coach for the fourth time, the last occasion being that 1997 triumph in South Africa in which he and Telfer masterminded a 2-1 series win. Telfer is not reprising his assistant role for next year's return to the Republ
ic – Warren Gatland, the Wales coach, is tipped to be announced as forwards coach later this month – but, representing Wasps at yesterday's Heineken Cup launch at Murrayfield, McGeechan revealed yesterday that his long-time friend and colleague was already helping with Lions preparation.
When asked how he would track player performances, particularly in Scotland, McGeechan replied: "I was up here last week talking to Frank (Hadden] and Andy Robinson and one or two others.
"I'm trying to tap into that experience in all four countries. I can't do it on my own. There will be tough decisions, but I want to make them on the basis of the best knowledge possible. Jim (Telfer] is an important part of that process, particularly up here.
"The most important thing is the character of the players you pick. If you've been a Lion or you've been part of the Lions, then you've got a good under- standing of what makes a good Lion. That's when you have a fighting chance of having a successful group.
"The key thing for me is getting a real insight into players who can make an impact with the Lions, like Tom Smith did in '97. To do that I have to have very meaningful conversations with people who are involved with them week in and week out. I will not be pre-determining selection on reputation or on not knowing some players as well as others.
"I need to be speaking to people who are directly involved or watching them week in and week out. I've got to trust other peoples' judgments."
Clearly, Telfer, at 68, no longer has the day-to-day involvement with players, but he is an avid watcher and, crucially, after several Five Nations, Grand Slam, World Cup and Lions campaigns alongside McGeechan, the Borderer is a rugby brain and voice the Lions coach trusts.
These days Telfer helps out with Borders representative and Melrose youth teams, but, a rugby fanatic still, he spends many waking hours devouring coverage of the Magners League, Guinness Premiership, Super 14, Currie Cup, Tri Nations and, starting this weekend, the Heineken Cup. He has been to Magners League games in Scotland this season and already has started compiling notes on Scots who could push for places in the first draft of 60 players McGeechan will announce in January.
McGeechan is renowned for meticulous preparation and this kind of scouting system is designed to ensure a team's performance neither over-inflates nor under-inflates an individual's worth – so, for example, if Scotland had another nightmare Six Nations that should not rule out all Scots.
McGeechan is the most well-versed on how difficult the Lions task is, insisting it has always been an impossible mission, and made it clear that there would be no quota system in 2009; no desire either to spread the representation across the four nations, nor rely on one dominant team, but a drive to unearth the most suitable players and squad for the system he believes could topple the Springboks again.
The Wasps director of rugby also has the not insignificant issue of lifting a struggling club side, who meet Edinburgh in back-to-back Heineken Cup matches in December, but while he is hoping the onset of European competition will help that task, McGeechan is also confident the tournament will bring out the best in Lions contenders.
"Consistency is one of the biggest things and if you are aspiring to be a Lion then you don't accept poor performances," he said. "The challenge in a club competition is that you're prepared to take that responsibility. You would expect the players pushing to be Lions to be influential in the Heineken Cup, leaving a mark. From my perspective, the Heineken is the first real challenge of the season.
"So far players have been getting up-to-speed and settling down. But, the Heineken Cup, the November internationals and then the Heineken Cup in December and January leading into the Six Nations is the key performance arc.
"I'm not selecting a Lions squad straight after the Six Nations because I think there will be six or seven players I'll want to see more of post-Six Nations. It's relatively easy to pick 25 players, but it's the last ten that often make the difference on a Lions tour."
He added: "You have to look at the Lions completely differently to anything you ever do. The players have to do something that they never have to do in any other situation. The Lions are now the only players who will ever go on tour; there are no other international tours any more, so this is unique."
McGeechan's other hat as far as the Heineken Cup is concerned is helping two-time winners Wasps navigate Pool 2, which includes Edinburgh, Magners League champions Leinster and French club Castres.
The Scot refused to make predictions about how far his side or any other would go in the competition and believes the pools are so close, qualification could come down to one crucial match in each case.
He said: "I think it's a very tough tournament to call and I think there are always games at pool stages where every coach and every player will say, 'This is one we have to perform in'.
"Everybody will ask that question in the pool stages, never mind the knockout stages."
For Edinburgh head coach Andy Robinson, that game is Saturday's opener against Leinster. "I think it all centres around that first game when we play Leinster at home," he said. "If we want to get a foothold in the tournament, we've got to win that. We lost it last year to Toulouse, 19-15, so it's a key game for us."
Like McGeechan, the former England head coach will not just be watching his own side this weekend. "I'm going to be sat watching all the Heineken games because I'm interested in every single game that is going on," Robinson said.
The full article contains 1101 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
