26-03-2025
British & Irish Lions tour: coaching team announcement
Latest updates
Luke Slater
26 March 2025 • 8:51am
8:51AM
What are the Lions fixtures?
Friday, June 20
vs Argentina (Aviva Stadium, Dublin)
Saturday, June 28
vs Western Force (Optus Stadium, Perth)
Tuesday, July 2
vs Queensland Reds (Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane)
Saturday, July 5
vs NSW Waratahs (Allianz Stadium, Sydney)
Wednesday, July 9
vs ACT Brumbies (Gio Stadium, Canberra)
Saturday, July 12
vs Australia & New Zealand Invitational (Adelaide Oval, Adelaide)
Saturday, July 19
vs Australia – First Test (Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane)
Tuesday, July 22
vs First Nations and Pasifika XV (Marvel Stadium, Melbourne)
Saturday, July 26
vs Australia – Second Test (MCG, Melbourne)
Saturday, August 2
vs Australia – Third Test (Accor Stadium, Sydney)
8:48AM
Can you guess who they are?
Stay tuned…
Our #Lions2025 coaches will be announced today 🦁
— British & Irish Lions (@lionsofficial) March 26, 2025
8:39AM
Good morning
Welcome to our live coverage for the announcement of the British & Irish Lions tour coaching squad. We are under three months away from the first warm-up game and now the preparations are ramping up, with the announcement of Andy Farrell's backroom staff for the tour to Australia.
Some of the names we know, though they are yet to be officially confirmed. One of those is John Dalziel who will be the forwards coach. Daniel Schofield reports on that.
Dalziel has been Scotland's forwards coach under Gregor Townsend since 2020, having performed the same role at Glasgow Warriors. Farrell will confirm his coaching team in London on Wednesday morning.
It is understood that Farrell turned to Dalziel after Paul O'Connell, the Ireland forwards coach, pulled out of the reckoning for this summer's tour of Australia. While Dalziel lacks the profile of former Lions captain O'Connell, he is highly rated within coaching circles and Scotland won more line-out ball than any other country in the Six Nations this year.
Dalziel hails from the Scottish rugby heartland of the Borders and represented London Scottish and Borders Reivers during the professional era. He started coaching 20 years ago at Melrose and has acted as head coach for Scotland Under-20s and the Scotland sevens team.
A few other names are thought to be likely, though the exact make-up of the coaching team and what roles they will be in are yet to be confirmed. Anyway, the confirmation of all of these will be announced in the next hour or so.
We will be there to let you know what they are along with updates and analysis from our team of rugby experts on the ground.
