At the launch of their multi-million pound sponsorship deal early this year, the 2009 Lions management said they would wait until after the Six Nations to begin the selection process for their coaching team.

At that time, the candidates were falling away like lame horses in a wet Grand National.

Brian Ashton was still reeling from the attack on his coaching reputation from senior members of his World Cup squad, and already distanced himself from the job by preferring to take what is likely to be an England A (sorry, Saxons) squad to Argentina next year.

Eddie O’Sullivan, the housewives’ choice after last year’s Six Nations, was too busy rummaging down the back of his sofa looking for the team he used to have and had somehow lost between then and the start of the World Cup, to further his claims for the job.

Frank Hadden’s chances hinged on a strong Scottish showing in this year’s championship, and therefore could have been discounted before his players so much as turned up at the team hotel.

And then there was Warren Gatland. Given the trials and tribulations suffered by the coaches of the other three home nations, the New Zealander had barely got his smalls out of his suitcase than he was coming up on the rails as a genuine contender.

Having succeeded where the English RFU failed in giving Shaun Edwards a job he could get his teeth into rather than offering him the crumbs from the bottom of the biscuit tin, Gatland and his sidekick set about turning a Welsh squad previously driven by player power into a fitter, faster, far more disciplined outfit.

They took no nonsense from any player who thought his was a divine right to a place in the side, replaced a leaky defence with a sheet of titanium and produced a Grand Slam-winning outfit in the space of three months.

And it is that time frame that the Lions selection panel should pay heed to. Gatland and Edwards have quickly applied their processes to a group of players they had never clapped eyes on before, and they made it work.

In 2005, Clive Woodward was appointed because he had proved himself capable of producing a Six Nations and World Cup-winning side, credentials that were deserving of the honour of Lions head coach. But the difference with Woodward was that he reached that point over a much longer period than it has taken Wales’ new coaches.

When Woodward attempted to replicate his English formula for success in the concertinaed environment of a Lions tour, where pre-tour preparation was limited and the games came thick and fast with few easy touches even in the midweek fixtures, he found it nigh on impossible, and some of his quirkier approaches became a focus for ridicule.

The end result was that his Test team had little real game time together and were no match for a rampant All Blacks side.
What Gatland and Edwards have shown is that they have been able to ingrain their philosophy very quickly on their charges. Consider that, if they maintain form and fitness, the majority of those players will be on the plane to South Africa next year, having completed a two-Test tour of the same country this summer.

Throw a healthy Wasps contingent into the Lions party - it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the names Sackey, Cipriani, Haskell, Rees, Reddan, Shaw, Payne, Waldouck, Lewsey and Worsley will all be included – and you have a vast contingent familiar with the Edwards defence, not to mention the fact that the addition of Ian McGeechan to the coaching party would bring another like mind to the table.

There is no argument for any other coaching combination that can measure up to the case for a Gatland/Edwards/McGeechan ticket and, if the Lions want any chance of recording a first series win in 12 years, the selection process should be a short one.