“I don’t think rugby union was ready to take advantage of what I’d learnt. The first guy to use me properly was Jack Rowell.”Before taking over as England coach, Rowell employed Alred at Bath, and in between Dick Best got the guru working with the Red Rose outfit.After being turfed off Twickers, Alred moved to the St George Rugby League club in Sydney, caught the eye of Bob Dwyer and worked with the Wallabies. He knows all about the kicking strengths of Matt Burke and John Eales. On his return, Alred was reunited with Rowell, who took him to South Africa on England’s 1995 World Cup campaign.Andrew kicked the Wallabies out of the quarter-finals before England were destroyed by Jonah Lomu and the All Blacks in the semis.

Then Alred’s love-hate relationship with the RFU took another turn when Don Rutherford, then the technical director, told him his services were no longer required. There would be no more rejections.Andrew introduced him to Wilkinson, Clive Woodward reappointed him to the England coaching staff and Fran Cotton, the Lions manager in 1997, took him on the tour to South Africa, where Jenkins kicked the Springboks to distraction. England wanted to take Alred on their current tour of North America, but the Lions’ need was greater. He has helped to school Paul Grayson for the English role.”You can’t go in with one kicker, you can’t go in with two,” Alred says. “We took five to South Africa and we’re taking five this time.” In addition to Wilkinson and Jenkins, there’s Ronan O’Gara, Matt Dawson and Matt Perry.

Mike Catt, Austin Healey and Iain Balshaw will join the group sessions “It’s not simply a question of who is the best goalkicker. In rugby you have to do everything, which makes it a much greater challenge than American football. We have to look at defensive kicking, attacking kicking and restarts, not to mention working with the ball in hand. On top of everything one has to kick goals.”What I particularly look for is how a player responds to the clutch kicks, the ones that can win a match.

Through basic mechanics my job is to give them a better understanding of what they’re trying to do. Coaching a technique brings consistency and a realisation of why and how they can withstand pressure. The rest is fine tuning.”When Leadbetter was coaching Nick Faldo, they became synonymous with fine tuning. Alred, who is doing a degree in skill acquisition and performance under pressure, makes no apologies for adopting the phrase. “All the goalkickers play golf and there are massive parallels, not just in striking a ball but in the psychology.

You might have a near- perfect swing one day but then it disappears and that’s when you need to fall back on technique and think it through.”Alred ­ “Don’t say how old I am”­ even sounds like a golfer. A two-step goal-kick is a “lob wedge” and a penalty from 35 yards a “lazy seven-iron”. The Lions have taken a full complement of clubs, including a couple of Big Bertha drivers. “People are always looking for the perfect swing,” Alred said. “Such a thing doesn’t actually exist, although some get very close to it.”.