Tactics first, Sir Clive, players second

A lot of premature team-picking has gone on in the past week or two for a Lions tour that does not start for six months. Bookmakers are even offering odds about who is going to be captain.

I'm not saying the matter hasn't crossed my mind, but I am prepared to wait until after the Six Nations before thinking about who should be entrusted with the task of taking on the All Blacks.

Four of my fellow pundits have put forward their team and did not include one Welshman.

It caused an outcry among some of my countrymen, but my advice is not to rise to the bait. There's plenty of time - and plenty of other things to be worried about.

We don't normally get as excited about the Lions this early, but the high-profile presence of Lions coach Sir Clive Woodward has kept the subject dominating the sports pages.

No World Cup winner has been put in charge of the Lions before, so I suppose we could have expected the interest to be greater than usual but, at this stage, it's more about preparation than about players.

No one is more meticulous than Woodward, and his plans will be well advanced. He has spent time with all the Six Nations camps and has already pieced together a large backroom staff, including the former New Labour spin doctor Alistair Campbell.

All of this might appear a bit gimmicky, but I am sure he is not neglecting any aspect of the tour. Two areas, particularly, demand his most urgent attention.

He is ahead of the game in the vital negotiations about refereeing.

Too many trips Downunder have been ruined by different interpretation of the laws. Woodward's view is that if there's going to be a row about referees we may as well have it now.

He has been in touch with his counterpart, Graham Henry, and favours having a three-strong panel of leading refs to handle the three tests.

He's happy for one to be from New Zealand, Paddy O'Brien for example, one from the British Isles and one from a neutral country. Between them they could sort out the discrepancies between interpretations.

I would be happy if they had one referee handling all three, with the other two on the line. No matter where he came from, I am sure you'd get consistency, which is what we want.

The other issue that should be worrying the Lions boss is how his attack is going to get past the drift defence of the All Blacks.

After New Zealand's European tour, some are saying that their front five are not going to be a big worry to the Lions. I'm sure it will be different in New Zealand, and I don't think the Lions can bank on getting much dominance up front.

Even if they did, they would still have the problem of getting through the All Blacks defence. The All Blacks drift so expertly, and use the touchline as an extra defender so well, that it is almost impossible to get outside.

It's a problem, and it will take a lot of tactical thinking from the Lions to find a way through.

The way to pierce the drift defence is to hold it up by running at the inside shoulder and trying to cut an angle through the line.

It's very difficult to achieve when a team are as well-drilled as the All Blacks, and it needs the attackers to be spot-on with their running and passing.

It is the most important preparation work the Lions are faced with, and working out which players are going to be best at doing the job is a decision Woodward can leave until much later.

- INDEPENDENT