Celts take pride of place in provisional Lions side

WHEN Clive Woodward was announced as coach of the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand, we all made a couple of assumptions.

The first was that he would adopt a no-stone-left-unturned approach, with exhaustive planning and a huge backroom team to keep him company. On that one, Woodward did not disappoint and, in fact, even exceeded expectations.

Our second assumption was the vast majority of places in the Lions squad would be taken up by Englishmen, players Woodward knew and nurtured in his seven years as English supremo - that assumption looks like being blown out of the water.