Wales
Shaun Edwards interested in Lions post for 2017 tour
ESPN Staff
January 24, 2016
Gatland: Irish are Six Nations favourites

Wales coach Shaun Edwards is interested in being part of the British & Irish Lions' backroom team for their tour of New Zealand in 2017.

Edwards is regarded as one of the game's finest coaching minds and has been the brains behind Wales' defence since he took up the role in 2008. He was part of the Lions' backroom staff on their tour of South Africa in 2009 but missed out in 2013 with Andy Farrell preferred.

But if given the opportunity, Edwards would consider touring again as the Lions prepare for their toughest task.

"I would be interested in going on another Lions tour," Edwards said in the Mail on Sunday. "Unfortunately, on the last Lions tour there to New Zealand in 2005 a lot of the coaches who went didn't have a job within a year. You have to take that into consideration as well. They got slaughtered. It is almost like Mission Impossible. I'm not being negative, I'm being truthful."

© Steve Bardens - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images

Edwards knows how reactive and impulsive rugby can be when it comes to managerial changes. And he feels that had Wales lost to England then it would be him out of a job rather than Stuart Lancaster and his backroom staff who left the RFU after their dismal World Cup.

"If we had not beaten England, then it would have been my last game," Edwards said. "We had to go through from the group stages or probably all of us would have had the chop. Maybe they would have taken into consideration the amount injuries we had and the fact that every difficulty was sent our way. To offer a four-year deal shows a lot of faith in me to do the job. I'm very happy here."

© ESPN Staff

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