Ian McGeechan tells Andy Farrell the one policy he must enforce when picking Lions squad

Lion king Ian McGeechan has advised Andy Farrell to pick on personality as much as talent when he names his Lions tour squad on Thursday. Farrell will unveil his party for the summer trip to Australia in front of 2,000 fans at London's O2 arena in a showbiz launch to the tour.

While the temptation will be for the Lions head coach to simply select the best of the best across the home unions, McGeechan says the key to a successful tour is a no egos policy. The four-times Lions head coach, who also toured twice as a player and was an assistant to Clive Woodward in New Zealand in 2005, believes that as much as Farrell needs winners, he needs team men more for the eight-week long mission.

"Selection is so important - as is doing your homework before that," said McGeechan,

"Not only are you picking players because of what they can do on the field but because of what sort of character they are and what they are like off the field. Three-quarters of your time isn't spent playing rugby on a Lions tour.

"Trying to get background detail from other international coaches was always important for me. That frames some of the selections.

"All the successful tours I've been involved with, whether as a player or a coach, were made by the environment created by the players who didn't get picked in the Test teams. They made the Test match environment.

"It's about trying to create an atmosphere that challenges but also supports when you are dealing with a group of players, most of whom would never have been dropped in their lives. You're back to characters of players. The Lions badge is so important you want to do it justice."

There has been debate over the size of the squad that Farrell will be for the nine-match tour which is preceded by a warm-up fixture against Argentina in Dublin. Warren Gatland named a 37-man squad for the Lions' last series in South Africa in 2021 but Clive Woodward took 44 players on the ill-fated tour to New Zealand in 2005.

McGeechan, at 78 still consultant director of rugby at Championship club Doncaster, says a smaller group, which will give everyone a chance to stake a claim for inclusion in the Test side, will offer a better chance of harmony.

"When I played, the first Test match was the ninth game of the tour. Now the length of a tour is nine games. You don't get that same opportunity to play which does make a difference," said McGeechan.

"You need the right squad numbers so you can involve every player in early games. It's easy to get it wrong by taking too big a squad and not playing players. They deserve to be given an opportunity to show what they can do in relation to earning a Test place.

"I've never got Test team selection right in week one. You write down what you think the First Test team might be and on all the tours I coached there were always differences by the time it came round.

"Players would come through in a Lions environment and there would be a natural chemistry between some players bringing different things out of each other. That might not have been obvious because they have never played together before."

While Farrell's Ireland team are expected to have the biggest representation, the squad could well be captained by an Englishman in Maro Itoje after he led England to a runners-up finish in his first Six Nations in charge.