Rob Howley is set to be confirmed as Wales’ interim head coach while Warren Gatland is away with the Lions.
The Welsh Rugby Union intend to repeat the process they went through four years ago when Howley stepped up from assistant to steer Wales to a Six Nations title, but without his boss on his shoulder.
Gatland will be confirmed as the Lions’ choice to lead the tour to New Zealand next summer at an unveiling in Edinburgh on Wednesday lunchtime. The WRU are poised to make their own announcement on Howley soon afterwards.
It will be Gatland’s second stint in charge, following the successful series in Australia in 2013. On that occasion, Gatland hung around with Wales for half of their autumn Tests in 2012 – not that it did them, or Howley, much good in terms of results as Wales lost that November to Argentina, Samoa, Australia and New Zealand.
Once Gatland had taken his hands off the tiller, Howley did far better and clinched the Six Nations trophy that season after four straight victories, including the 30-3 thrashing of England.
This time, the former Wales scrum-half will be in sole charge from the off as the Lions do not intend to let Gatland spend his autumn in Cardiff.
Instead, Gatland will be devoting his sole attention to the job of beating the All Blacks on a tour that starts just a week after the Guinness Pro 12 and the Aviva Premiership season finishes.
Four years ago, the Australian provincial sides were generally without their Wallabies, but that will not be the case with the All Blacks.
New Zealand selector and former fly-half Grant Fox has said the Lions will be seeing plenty of All Blacks even before the Test series.
“The Super Rugby sides will be loaded up with All Blacks early because there’s a bit of time from game one to the first test and they need to play and then as we get closer to the test some of those franchises will have less access to the All Blacks as we start preparing for it,” he said.
“Any tour of New Zealand is going to be challenging because we’ve got real talent and depth here.”
On Wales’ tour to New Zealand in the summer, they lost all four matches including their midweek match against the Chiefs. Fox, though, is expecting a more competitive and challenging task.
“It will be tough for them, but the difference is Wales were down to their mid-week team and you’d think a mid-week British and Irish Lions team would be stronger than Wales.
“But I wouldn’t predict results based on that match against Wales, and I don’t think there will be a mid-week Lions team as such. I think Gats, if it is him, will mix things up to give everyone an opportunity to press for test selection. The last thing he’d want to do is flag early what his test team is, both for his own group and for us.”