British & Irish Lions

It was a huge privelage to be given the opportunity to design the official British & Irish Lions website for their tour to South Africa in June this year (2009). I've been a rugby fan for many years now and this is one of the greatest sporting events in the world... Sotic press release follows...

A British and Irish Lions tour is one of the most eagerly anticipated events in World rugby and British and Irish Lions Ltd have turned to Sotic to provide their online presence in the build up to and during next years' tour to South Africa.

www.lionsrugby.com will provide all the latest news ahead of the trip, starting with today’s announcement of Ian McGeechan as coach for the tour, right up until the squad depart for South Africa, and will have a comprehensive view during the tour including features, interviews, match details and statistics.

“Our main priority for the design of lionsrugby.com was its requirement for flexibility,” said Sotic’s Head of Creative David Strachan. “Between now and May 2009, when the tour begins, we will be introducing a whole host of new functionality and information on the site and this needed to be factored in from day one.

“In addition to flexibility, the site had to satisfy the demands of the fans. We focused a lot on how we could present information to them in new and exciting ways and I believe we’ve achieved this using a range of cutting edge web technologies. The interactive tour itinerary and historical timeline are perfect examples of this.”

Sotic have coupled the RedDot Content Management system with their own in house designs and templates so that news and statistics from third party agencies PA Sport and Westgate can be quickly uploaded onto the site.

“The ability to quickly provide news, features, pictures and interactivity to fans both in the build up to and during the tour will make lionsrugby.com a ‘must have’ site for fans both in the British Isles and South Africa,” said Sotic’s Content Manager Jonathan McConnell.

“ The 2009 British and Irish Lions test series against the World Champions will be a huge rugby event and it is a great honour for Sotic to have been chosen to provide the tour’s official web presence. We are sure that it will meet the expectations of all those involved, both on and off the field.”