Guy Richardson is the man who made sure that everything worked on the British and Irish Lions Tour to Australia last year. Yesterday he was in Dublin as part of Paralympics Ireland and Sport for Business’ ‘Excellence’ series of informal chats with people that can make a difference to how sport and business interact.
Richardson’s career spanned the British army followed by a spell as Scotland’s Rugby Team manager before he stepped up to become Operations Director for the Tour.
His first initiative was to find out from those who had played with the Lions what it was that made it special and where the gaps were. A detailed set of 45 one to one interviews were conducted which got to the heart of the Lions in a way that had never been fully recorded before.
Bible
Richardson produced his own ‘bible’ on what this meant and how it could not only be recreated in the best parts but improved and delivered at every stage of the six week tour and the years of advance preparation.
A private journey across over 50 hotels and seventy potential training centres in Australia, conducted during the same time of year that the tour would take place produced another dossier with options for Warren Gatland to make the final call on once he was appointed as the Lions manager.
Richardson shared that the two most critical elements of hotel selection were to have an area large enough to become the ‘team room ‘ with all aspects of medical, analysis, management and chill sections in one open plan space; and to have good food.
No Excuses
“Our aim was to give the players and management no room for making excuses.”
“We planned for everything and for every variant of everything.”
“At one point we had to get a replacement out for an injured player and I had to ring the British ambassador to Australia at 3am. I had his mobile phone and he picked up. The replacement player was with us within 36 hours.”
When he arrived he will also have had a made to measure suite of training kit and casual wear because the team travelled with 50 spares in all shapes and sizes. That’s preparation.
All bar one of the many flights via Hong Kong and across Australia were on scheduled services and even here little was left to chance. The flights were booked a year in advance and the measurements of the overhead bag storage were taken into account when it cam to specifying the size of bags that players would pack for a 24 hour sat every time they moved. Everything else was there when they left a hotel and waiting for them on arrival at the next stopping point.
Project plan
All this meticulous detail was contained in a six stage project plan running from September 2010 to August 13. It covered the research, outline, detail, consolidation, implementation and review.
Daily management meetings on tour kicked off with a simple question for those present of ‘how were we flexible today?’
“That combination of planning in detail and building in enough flexibility to accommodate changes in mood, mode or personnel was at the heart of what we wanted to create, and which ultimately delivered the first series win in 16 years.”
In the review Richardson did not spare himself and the sight of 1,000 schoolchildren in a playground where none had been on the site visit is one that still gives him a start.
He is a man with a strong moral compass. The players were given the freedom to set their own boundaries, up to a point, and this meant the senior players were invested more than ever in making the tour such a success.
Drico
One of the final questions we asked in a very open and honest question and answer session was where he was and when he knew that Brian O’Driscoll had been dropped for the last test.
“I was walking towards Warren and two of his team in a corridor and asked them was everything OK.”
“That was when they told me that they were just about to break the news.”
“I nodded and walked on by. I will take responsibility for everything that happens in terms of getting those guys ready to do their best, but as to the rugby decisions that was one I thought best to stay well away from.
Richardson is now running his own consultancy, Eiger Sports and Business Performance which manages sports and business planning and conducts independent performance assessments. He has not ruled out another Lions tour, the next is to New Zealand and if he goes it is worth backing them now to cause perhaps the greatest upset in rugby history.
Patrick Haslett summed up the lunchtime session at Sport HQ by highlighting that what we learn from the experience of others can be the vital ingredient in making the best environment possible. With Rio in mind Paralympics Ireland CEO Liam Harbison scribbled a not to himself that he needed to get hold of the Irish Ambassador in Brasilia’s mobile phone number.
