ANDY FARRELL is the leading contender to be the Lions backs coach on next summer’s tour to Australia, six months after he initially rejected an offer to become part of England’s management team to remain with Saracens.

The Lions had hoped to name the coaches who will assist Warren Gatland in Australia before the four home unions started their series of autumn internationals next month, but the announcement has been put back to December.

The England forwards coach, Graham Rowntree, and Wales defence expert, Shaun Edwards, were both part of the 2009 Lions coaching staff in South Africa and are expected to be asked to go to Australia.

However, it is Farrell’s inclusion that comes as the biggest surprise.

When Gatland was unveiled as the Lions head coach last month, he said he would consider three factors when deciding his coaching team: nationality, continuity from the last tour, when he was in charge of the forwards, and ability.

The attack coach three years ago was Rob Howley, now the interim Wales head coach, with Gatland taking a leave of absence for a year to concentrate on the Lions.

Leinster’s Joe Schmidt had been touted as a contender for the tour, but Farrell has emerged as the favourite.

One of the reasons for the delay in naming the coaches is that Gatland needed surgery on one of the feet he fractured in an April fall from a ladder, but talks are being held with the unions involved.

Wales, who are touring Japan next summer, would prefer that Howley concentrated on his day job, although they have said publicly they would not stand in his way were he chosen.

The Rugby Football Union is expecting an approach for Rowntree and would release him from next year’s tour to Argentina, but it would need more arm-twisting to let Farrell go as well.

Given Farrell’s agonising over whether to accept England’s offer at the end of this year’s Six Nations, after he had worked in a temporary capacity during the championship, he may not give the Lions a quick answer.

He had to be persuaded by Saracens to accept the temporary England position and said last month that it was only at the end of last season that he decided to return to international rugby: “I did not want to let my mates down.”