Ireland and Lions head coach Andy Farrell has announced an Irish-dominated Lions coaching ticket to tour Australia this summer.
The countdown to this summer's tour to Australia is now well and truly on, and the time has come for Farrell to make his first major appointments of the tour since taking on the role late last year.
The Ireland head coach has named three of his fellow Irish coaches on the ticket, with Irish defence coach Simon Easterby, scrum coach John Fogarty and attack coach Andrew Goodman all getting the nod to accompany their boss Down Under.
Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel and England assistant coach Richard Wigglesworth make up the other two spots on Farrell's five-strong list of assistants.
Click on the key point you want to read about, or just keep scrolling to see updates in our liveblog [below]:
Andy Farrell names five Lions assistants to join coaching staff
Farrell’s latest recruits will join a three-strong staff appointed before the Six Nation comprising of David Nucifora as General Manager, Vinny Hammond as head of analysis and Aled Walters as Head of Athletic Performance.
Farrell has already worked with all three of them in Ireland. Nucifora was the Ireland performance director until 2024 when he moved to Scotland, Hammond is currently Head of Analysis for the Irish National team and Aled Walters heads up the national side's Athletic Performance
The assembled coaching staff will now be charged with selecting a Lions squad which is set to be announced at an event in London on the 8th May.
That squad will first take to the field in front of a sold-out Aviva Stadium on June 26th when they take on Argentina before travelling to Australia.
The first test will then be played in Brisbane on the 19th July, with the second on the 26th July and the third on the 2nd of August.
