LONDON - Wales boss Warren Gatland is the overwhelming favourite to be named as coach of the British and Irish Lions when officials announce their choice tomorrow for next year's tour of Australia.
The New Zealander has long been regarded as the front-runner for the job of coaching the Lions against the Wallabies, but a freak accident five months ago almost put him out of the running.
Gatland was back home in New Zealand in April, shortly after guiding Wales to the second Six Nations Grand Slam of his tenure, when a fall from a ladder at his beach house left him with two fractured heels.
But he is understood to have allayed concerns about his fitness when Lions officials visited him in New Zealand.