Simon Easterby and Richard Wigglesworth set for Lions coaching roles
Head coach Andy Farrell will name his assistants for the tour of Australia on Wednesday.
Simon Easterby and Richard Wigglesworth look set to be the headline appointments among Andy Farrell’s British and Irish Lions coaching staff for this summer’s tour of Australia.
Head coach Farrell will reveal his team of assistants in London on Wednesday.
Easterby took on the job of Ireland interim head coach for this season’s Guinness Six Nations campaign while Farrell concentrated on Lions business.
With Easterby seemingly poised to join his Ireland boss Down Under, it is thought that Paul O’Connell will take charge for Ireland’s summer Tests against Georgia and Portugal.
England’s senior assistant coach Wigglesworth is also primed for a Lions role, along with Ireland scrum coach John Fogarty.
The latest appointments will follow confirmed posts within the Lions set-up for Ireland’s strength and conditioning coach Aled Walters and ex-Ireland performance director David Nucifora.
Former England scrum-half Wigglesworth, 41, succeeded current England head coach Steve Borthwick as Leicester boss in 2022.
He then linked up with Borthwick’s England coaching team the following summer, and became senior assistant coach in October 2024.
Under Wigglesworth’s attacking tutelage, England scored 25 tries in this season’s Six Nations and made 36 line-breaks as they finished runners-up to France.
Farrell will announce the playing squad for Australia on May 8, with the Lions facing Argentina in Dublin six weeks later before flying to Perth and a June 28 clash against Western Force.
A three-Test series against Australia kicks off in Brisbane on July 19, followed by games in Melbourne and Sydney.
