British and Irish Lions: Joe Yap is committed to picking the best players over a balanced squad

British and Irish Lions women’s head coach Jo Yap has decided to pick the best squad possible for the opening tour of New Zealand next summer – a position which means the group is heavily weighted towards world champions England.

The Red Roses have won 38 consecutive Tests and have not lost to Scotland, Wales or Ireland since 2015.

“Ultimately, when it comes to the Lions, the best players are selected,” Yap told BBC Sport.

“It’s absolutely important – if you’re a Lion, you want to know that you deserve to be a Lion.

“I appreciate England’s dominance from that point of view, but any team you go to is like, ‘Wow, they’re really talented’.”

yes, Recruitment last month, Says he has already taken advice from Andy Farrell, who led the men’s Lions team to a 2-1 series win over Australia last year.

Now he is keen to build a coaching team that can get up to speed ahead of the women’s team’s first match against the Black Ferns XV on 4 September 2027.

“It was a key point from him,” Yap said of his conversation with Farrell. “In many ways you have such a short runway. You don’t have time to sleep at all. You have to be able to hit the ground running.

“Having the right people around me that I trust is really important.”

Yap has taken up a talent development role with the Rugby Football Union and was part of the recent Women’s Six Nations England coaching staff after stepping down as Australia coach following last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup quarter-final run.

Lions chief executive Ben Calvelli said Yap, who won 70 caps for England as a player, was an outstanding candidate to lead the women’s team on its maiden tour.

“We had a really long search, a really robust process with a lot of competition and talking to a lot of people across the international game,” Calvelli said.

“We as a panel agreed that Joe Yap was the right person to lead the tour.

“Joe has been involved in the women’s game for decades as a player and a captain, but also as a coach at pathway level, club level and international level.

“But when we talked to Joe, there were a whole bunch of things that impressed. One of them was a very clear and detailed understanding of the game — how to put a gameplan together strategically and technically to succeed.

“Perhaps even more important was this focus on the people, a real commitment to the culture, on the importance of getting a group of players who haven’t played together before and can commit to a common goal and to each other.”