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'He'd be great' - Exiled coach backed to fill England void

195 days ago

Paul Gustard and Steve Borthwick during the Quilter Cup match between England and the Barbarians at Twickenham Stadium on May 27, 2018 in London, England.

New Harlequins captain Alex Dombrandt has backed his former boss Paul Gustard to be “great” for England should he join Steve Borthwick’s set-up.

The former Quins boss, now defence coach for Stade Francis, is reportedly on Borthwick’s three-man shortlist to fill the void left by Felix Jones, who announced his resignation as defence coach last month. The former Leicester Tigers and Saracens flanker is joined by Oyonnax head coach Joe El-Abd and Stormers defence coach Norman Laker on the shortlist.

This is a role that Gustard has already held – working under Eddie Jones until England’s disastrous 2018 Six Nations campaign – but he has rebuilt his career since then, and presided over the joint-most frugal defence in the Top 14 last season in terms of tries conceded.

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Dombrandt flourished under Gustard’s tutelage in the early days of his Quins career, and recently described his former boss as a “great defence coach”.

Speaking ahead of the new Gallagher Premiership season, where his Harlequins side face a tricky trip to the Salford Community Stadium to face Sale Sharks on Sunday, the England No.8 gave his thoughts on potentially being reunited with his former boss, this time with a rose on his chest.

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“He’s a great defence coach, his record speaks for itself,” the Harlequins skipper said.

“I got on well with Guzzy, had a great relationship with him.

“If he got that role, I think he’d be great.”

While Gustard has received Dombrandt’s backing, the biggest obstacle preventing him from returning to Twickenham is proving to be his club, with Stade Francais chief executive Thomas Lombard warning that his coach is not available.

“It is impossible for us to let Paul leave Stade Français, he is under contract until 2026,” Lombard reportedly said. “We want to keep him.”

Gustard will be focussed on the job at hand this weekend, as his Stade Francais side host Toulon at the Stade Jean Bouin on Sunday in round three of the Top 14.

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Comments

1 Comment

fl 194 days ago

if this is the three candidates, I guess Gustard would be the best option? I'm just glad Nick Easter isn't in the picture anymore though tbh!

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Comments on RugbyPass

fl 12 minutes ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

“Slot and Arteta are among the youngest you named. They have the least experience as a manager (6 years each). Espírito Santo and Pep are the oldest and have the most (12 years + each). Pep is pushing 17 years experience, all at elite level. There are plenty around his age that won’t have the same level of experience. Plenty.”

ok - so you agree. Experience is strongly correlated with age among the managers I named.

“Test rugby has no clear pattern of that.”

I agree. Different sports are different and patterns evident in one won’t necessarily be reproduced in others.

“Why would you dismiss a paradox? Contradictions are often revealing. Or is that too incoherent?”

If they can be revealing then explain what they reveal. You’re not close to making a point atm.

144 Go to comments

Mark 18 minutes ago

'He understands the Tigers DNA': Ex-CEO Simon Cohen's pick for head coach

The Search for a new coach at Tigers has turned into a charade, the board are clearly incompetent.

They appointed Dan Mckellar in a knee jerk reaction to Borthwicks departure and then jettisoned him after a season, they then appointed cheika on a 1yr contract, which was insane.

Its a bloody fiasco.

1 Go to comments

fl 20 minutes ago

'He's a special player': Lawrence Dallaglio backs Henry Pollock to be Lions bolter

ok so in terms of minutes per position he’s still played a fair amount more 8

and I think it sort of supports my point that when he was considered solely as a 7 he wasn’t deemed good enough to start. He only broke into the starting lineup as an 8.

What are you arguing? You dismissed Earl as an 8 on the basis of the low win rate last year. So it makes no sense to suggest that on the basis of win rates IRE and ENG are equal. You can’t just randomly narrow the time period you’re interested in to only this year when it suits your argument.

Anyway, you can’t just select players on the basis of their individual win rates. If Farrell did that he would select 23 Irish players, because no English or Scottish players (apart from those on just 1 or 2 caps) will come close to having equal win rates.

Ok - if Beirne plays 6 then Earl won’t play 7.

18 Go to comments

Steven Bullock 30 minutes ago

Six Nations: 5 things we've learned from half-way point weekend

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5 Go to comments

J Marc 46 minutes ago

Worcester pledge to honour rugby debts after Tier 2 entry approved

Simon Daroque, but yes he is a little “baroque “ too….

1 Go to comments

IkeaBoy 1 hour ago

Robbie Fleck: Key to South African Champions Cup success rests with Rassie

Yeah, I don’t really get it either.

The teams will need to be more competitive at some stage as I’m sure it won’t be cost effective before long. It’s a lot of money and resources they have to pump into it just to field teams, let alone compete.

Even with the Boks only focus being on RWC’s, the euro comps would be a great way to develop test players in the first 1-3 years of a RWC cycle.

2 Go to comments

HarunParisha 1 hour ago

Sale Sharks refuse to give up on new stadium dream

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0 Go to comments

Flankly 2 hours ago

Robbie Fleck: Key to South African Champions Cup success rests with Rassie

Not sure I understand. Its not obvious how you prioritize URC, Champions/Challenge Cup, Internationals, and rest. And if you add player development plans (eg experience of positions, playing conditions, game plans, opponents playing styles etc) it becomes harder. Additionally, consistency of selection helps with making adjustments to systems and tactics, so that further constrains your options. Travel challenges don’t make it easier.

Jake White has effectively decided that he would rather have a chance of success in one competition, at the expense of the other competition, than a near certainty of heroic failure in both. And he has implied that over time he plans to build enough depth to give the Bulls a chance in both the URC and Champions Cup simultaneously.

Not sure what is being proposed here that is supposedly a better plan.

2 Go to comments

IkeaBoy 2 hours ago

'He's a special player': Lawrence Dallaglio backs Henry Pollock to be Lions bolter

Indeed he has STARTED more test games at 8. I actually said he’s PLAYED more games at 7, though. Do you remember where he tended to play when he came on wearing #20?

He likely will select on the basis of win ratios. IRE and ENG won 4, SCOT won 2 and WAL won none. 6 Irish, 6 English, 3 Scottish seems about right for the starting 15.

Yeah, I think he’ll definitely bring Beirne to have as a utility lock/flanker. Doris’ discipline and leadership has maybe rocked a little this year but he’s still the best 8 in the game.

18 Go to comments

IkeaBoy 2 hours ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

Soccer on a rugby forum…

“Experience is strongly correlated with age, at least among the managers that I named”…

Slot and Arteta are among the youngest you named. They have the least experience as a manager (6 years each). Espírito Santo and Pep are the oldest and have the most (12 years + each). Pep is pushing 17 years experience, all at elite level. There are plenty around his age that won’t have the same level of experience. Plenty.

The younger breed you mentioned (Arteta in particular) may not coach at elite level beyond the next few years if they continue to not win trophies. Age and experience is not always a nice, steady gradient.

The only trend in English soccer is that managers don’t stay on as long with the same club. Due to the nature of the game and the assumed, immediate performance bounce of replacing them at the first sign of trouble. Knee-jerk style. Test rugby has no clear pattern of that.

Why would you dismiss a paradox? Contradictions are often revealing. Or is that too incoherent?

144 Go to comments

BA 2 hours ago

The raw data that proves Super Rugby Pacific is currently a cut above

You can’t compare the “quality”of competitions till they play against each other … what we do know is that nz teams filled with ABs and ABs can go at it with anyone in the world and these other teams and players are competing so would say the quality is high wouldn’t you? How are you determining that URC or top 14 is higher quality than Super I’m guessing you mean in the quality of players and execution ? Are you just assuming that it is because…. I would say it’s much of a muchness and the only indicator for that is international rugby and that is hella even

8 Go to comments

Deanbeckette 3 hours ago

Brumbies on high alert: Len Ikitau’s stark warning over ex-boss

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0 Go to comments

CV 3 hours ago

'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Indeed.

They’ve started to manage players better in France. Clubs and the FFR have now found a middle ground that works, especially when it comes to player welfare. In the past, French test players had to play the top 14 games in the weeks the 6N was off, no more. They don’t rest their foreign players though. Players like Kinghorn and Capuozzo still played for Toulouse between 6N weekends when French players didn’t have to. It has

Kinghorn and Jack Willis have become world class at Toulouse. Players get better in France. REC nations have heaps of players in the ProD2, it shows.

113 Go to comments

NB 3 hours ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

He would have made all the diff.

144 Go to comments

NB 3 hours ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

I’m not sure you appreciate the look that was his team missing their own WC.

I wish I didn’t. I experienced it first hand.

Coaching Aussie would be more a pure coaching choice, finding a team which has a sympathy with the way you like to coach the game.

144 Go to comments

NB 3 hours ago

Why Les Kiss and Stuart Lancaster can lead Australia to glory

Well Bruce Arians won the SB at 68 a few years ago and Belichick was still at the top of his game at the age of 66. AFAIK both Larry Brown and Phil Jackson won NBA titles in their mid 60’s. So it’s pretty common for coaches to be winning at the top level then.

Americans value experience because their professional sports are all far older than rugby, it will just take us a while to catch up. Those Yoda guys are like gold dust.

144 Go to comments

Elizabeth M Joshua 3 hours ago

What Newcastle 'can’t legislate for' as they face fellow basement dwellers

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