Wigglesworth & Dalziel named in Lions coaching team

Scotland forwards coach John Dalziel and England assistant Richard Wigglesworth have been confirmed as part of the British and Irish Lions coaching staff to take on Australia this summer.

Head coach Andy Farrell's staff draws most heavily from the Ireland set-up that he has left on secondment to lead the tourists.

Simon Easterby, who served as Ireland's interim head coach for this year's Six Nations, is joined by attack guru Andrew Goodman and scrum specialist John Fogarty.

David Nucifora, who was named as the Lions' performance manager in January, worked with Ireland for a decade before taking on a role with Scotland in 2024.

Aled Walters and Vinny Hammond, who work on strength and conditioning and analysis respectively for Ireland, have also already been confirmed as part of Farrell's set-up.

The Lions will play Argentina in Dublin on 20 June, before their first game on Australian soil against Western Force on 28 June.

The first Test against the Wallabies will take place on 19 July in Brisbane, with the series continuing in Melbourne and Sydney over the following two weeks.

The Wallabies are ranked eighth in the world, below Ireland, England and Scotland.

However, they claimed an impressive victory over England at Twickenham during their recent autumn tour of the northern hemisphere and their four regional sides made a strong start to their Super Rugby Pacific campaigns.

Tickets for the series have sold fast with more than 500,000 people expected to watch the nine matches across six Australian cities. The second Test in Melbourne, staged at the MCG, is likely to be the largest ever crowd for a Lions Test with the venue capable of holding more than 100,000 spectators.