Fewer players and more fun is recipe for Lions

By Mitch Phillips

LONDON (Reuters) - The 2009 British and Irish Lions will travel to South Africa with around 35 players and limited support staff as coach Ian McGeechan bids to instil his ethos that everyone has a real chance of making the test team.

McGeechan, who was unveiled on Wednesday as head coach for the fourth time and his seventh Lions tour in all, said he felt it was essential to scale down the party after the last two bloated and unsuccessful trips when 51 players went to New Zealand in 2005 and more than 40 to Australia four years earlier.

"I would like to be involved with the players, hands on, daily," McGeechan told a news conference on Wednesday.

"I want the same coaching team on the field every day with the same group of players and that gives you the chance to develop things quickly," added the Scot, who helped run the successful midweek team four years ago as Clive Woodward's first choice side were whitewashed.

McGeechan said there would be no repeat of the single-room scenario of 2005 nor, he hoped, of the siege mentality that kept the tourists separate from the media and fans.

"The best hotel set-up is doors open, players in and out just chatting," he said. "I've had a fantastic experience as a person with the Lions as well as a coach and a player and what give me most satisfaction is trying to ensure that the next group get as much or more out of it as I have.

"We went out for a pint as a midweek group four years ago and maybe in 2009 we will go out as a whole group."

Tour manager Gerald Davies agreed that it was time to bring the fun back into what he described as "rugby's last great adventure".