Howley, McGeechan, Gatland and Edwards show off the new Lions shirt

Wales coach Warren Gatland has been named as forwards coach for the Lions' 10-game summer tour of South Africa.

National colleagues Shaun Edwards (defence), Rob Howley (attack), Craig White (conditioning) and Rhys Long (analyst) will join him on the trip.

Scotland team doctor James Robson and media chief Greg Thomas also join the management team led by Ian McGeechan.

"This is an important milestone in our preparation," said Lions team manager Gerald Davies.

"The personnel have the proven skill sets to ensure that the Lions squad is well prepared, the cosmopolitan make-up of the management team reflecting the modern nature of rugby."

606: DEBATE Are these the right appointments by the Lions?

Their first game is against a Highveld XV in Rustenburg on 30 May.

Kiwi Gatland, who guided Wales to Grand Slam glory in last season's Six Nations, was Ireland head coach between 1998 and 2001, before preceding McGeechan as the head man at Wasps.

Lions great McGeechan had two spells coaching Scotland and works as director of rugby at Wasps with head coach Edwards.

Welshman Howley toured South Africa as a Lions player in 1997.

Talks had been taking place behind the scenes between the WRU and the Lions committee over the past few months, with Gatland and his assistants hot property after Wales' Grand Slam success.

And McGeechan said he hoped the appointments would result in a "uniformity of thinking".

He added: "There will be no innuendo or hiding in corners or whispers. If we think something is wrong in that team, it will be out in the open like a shot. The players deserve that."

McGeechan plans to pick a provisional squad in January, before trimming it to a final 35 or 36 three months later.

"The first 25 players could be relatively easy to select - it's the last 10 or 12 that I believe make the difference.

"What I wanted to do is give a month after the Six Nations where we can collectively target the last 10 players out of 20, or 25, that we are looking at," he commented.

WRU chairman David Pickering, meanwhile, said its coaching staff had its "full support", but others have questioned their involvement in light of Wales' tour of the US and Canada, which also takes place next summer.

"It is a tribute to them [Wales' coaching staff] to coach on a Lions tour," said former Wales international Adrian Hadley.

"But I don't think it's good for Welsh Rugby Union's point of view as they've got a tour going elsewhere. Who is going to coach the Welsh team in their absence?"

With Gatland, Edwards and Howley away on Lions duty, Robin McBryde takes charge of Wales in North America.

After the failure of Clive Woodward's bloated Lions outfit, who were whitewashed by New Zealand in 2005, a considerably smaller back-up team is expected.

However, South Africa's World Cup-winning coach Jake White recently confirmed he had spoken to McGeechan about working as a consultant on the trip.

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