The British and Irish Lions does not tend to be an understated venture, as the unveiling of Andy Farrell’s assistant coaches proved. For those in need of a reminder of the quadrennial touring side’s iconography, a room awash with shirts and souvenirs promoting the upcoming trip Down Under would have been ideal, badged breasts all around on mannequins and the assembled Lions grandees and flunkeys as Farrell revealed his staff at the home of their kit manufacturer. There were five men in branded polos that mattered more than the rest, though, with Simon Easterby, John Fogarty, John Dalziel, Andrew Goodman and Richard Wigglesworth soon joining their boss up on stage. It has been a busy week for the group of assistants, this unique assembly requiring a rapid building of bridges as challenging for coaches as it will be for the players once selected on 8 May. After gathering at a plush London hotel on Monday night, Farrell and his staff were almost immediately down to business on Tuesday, hashing out a long-list of potential tourists about 75 names long – before escaping to a branch of Hawksmoor for a steak dinner. The meat of the selection discussion is still to come with plenty of gristle yet to be chewed, but conclusions can already be drawn from an intriguing group chosen by Farrell to steer the ship in Australia. An Irish-heavy crew was always likely both given the head coach’s familiarity with the staff and their success of late, with Fogarty, Goodman and Easterby re-united with their regular line manager. Familiarity has also perhaps counted in the favour of Wigglesworth, with the former scrum half having worked under Farrell for both club and country while a player. Add Dalziel as a respected Scottish voice, and there is reasonably little to quibble with. The initial impressions of the group of one that will work collaboratively and cohesively towards a common goal, rather than take responsibility for a single area. While there will be a need for some role delineation at times, it is an approach that has worked well in the Irish set-up, and only aided by the existing familiarity between the coaching quartet drawn from Dublin. That co-operative feel will feed down from the head coach, who has a strong input on both attack and defence with Ireland, into the ranks, a strategy Farrell hopes will get the best of his staff and squad. “You start at the top with character and personality, selflessness; that type of stuff is an absolute given on a tour like this,” the Lions boss explained. “They can see the game from a holistic point of view and a specialised point of view and they can be inter-changeable. Just because of the dynamics of how this works, people can’t be too precious about giving a little bit of what they are coaching to another sector of the game. “People need to be cohesive and give to the group. The players 100 per cent feed off that. When they see a coaching group working in silos, it doesn’t feel right to them. When they see a tight-knit coaching group with people who are all on the same page and are good people at the same time, it fits for this type of tour.” Though Easterby toured as a player, Farrell is the lone coaching voice with experience of all that comes with a Lions tour. This is partly due to an absence of options: of past assistants, Steve Borthwick ruled himself out of contention, while Gregor Townsend and Steve Tandy perhaps have bigger battles to fight with Scotland. Of slight surprise, perhaps was the absence of Ireland forwards coach and past Lions captain Paul O’Connell, instead in line to fill in for Easterby in filling in for Farrell on Ireland’s tour of Georgia and Portugal. The inclusion of both Goodman and Wigglesworth is perhaps a nod to the fact that attack will be the area most in need of refinement once the tourists embark for Australia. Goodman has an intriguing background both in his native New Zealand and Ireland, and promised that the team would be “unpredictable” when asked about their attacking identity on Wednesday. Joe Schmidt, the Wallabies boss, has been an influential figure in his journey having first identified Goodman’s potential as a player and brought him to Leinster in 2012 – the idea of each pitting attacking wits with the other will clearly excite both. Goodman’s arrival also coincided, perhaps by happenstance, with the elevation of Sam Prendergast to a greater role, creating further anticipation about the outcomes of fascinating fly half debates to be had over the next few weeks. With a coaching team now in place, attention now turns to the impact it may have on the squad named. One would not expect parochial barracking from a composed and considered coaching team but the presence of Wigglesworth should aid those who, like Borthwick’s attack coach himself, enjoyed strong ends to the Six Nations, while Dalziel can perhaps fight the corner of a few occasionally-maligned Scottish forwards who might otherwise have found backers lacking. The process of narrowing down the list of 75 or so to a touring party probably around 37 or 38 names will involve plenty of hard graft over the next few weeks from coaches and players alike – while the international action may be done and dusted, the Investec Champions Cup, Premiership, United Rugby Championship and Top 14 will all be monitored closely in-person and from afar by the newly-confirmed staff. The prospect of who will lead the Lions pride on the field was thought to be, to mix species, a two-horse race but Farrell suggested otherwise this week. While it would still be an immense surprise if it were not Maro Itoje or Caelan Doris who flank the head coach at the O2 squad announcement on 8 May, injury or incident could yet strike and a wider pool of possible leaders is being considered. “He's got to be highly respected within the group, and a person that's more than comfortable of being himself within that,” Farrell said of the qualities he wants in his skipper. “Obviously he's got to have the respect, not just as a player, not just as a leader within the changing room, but a leader in the way that he handles himself in the entirety of what a Lions captain should be.” Little appears off the table in terms of the squad, with those based in France, including Owen Farrell, very much in the frame. Injuries, sadly, will take some of those in contention off the table between now and the tour begins, but there was a palpable sense of excitement around the staff as they begin to consider the immense pressure and privilege of narrowing down Britain and Ireland best and brightest. “They’re like children, they can’t wait to get going,” Farrell said – with the first puzzle pieces properly in place, now the fun can really begin.