Heineken Cup winners Graham Rowntree and Rob Howley have been handed key coaching roles for the 2013 British & Irish Lions tour to Australia.
Howley, the acting head coach of Wales, will be joined by England assistant coaches Rowntree and Andy Farrell as assistant coaches in Warren Gatland's team.
Former prop Rowntree is a double Heineken Cup winner from the back-to-back triumphant Leicester Tigers sides of 2001 and 2002 while former scrum half Howley scored the decisive winning try for London Wasps in 2004.
"I am delighted with today's appointments and confident that Rob, Graham, Andy and myself can come together quickly to face one of the hardest rugby challenges," said Gatland, the coach of that winning Wasps team eight years ago.
"Lions Tours are unique as we have to mold together players from four different countries in an incredibly short space of time.
"We have no illusion as to the hard work required but we have spoken of the challenges and truly believe that as a coaching team we can provide the players with the support and environment needed for victory in Australia.
"We will also discuss over the coming weeks the requirement for any further technical assistance."
