The loss of Lancaster continues to haunt English rugby
The last couple of weeks have been a tough reminder for England fans on what might have been.
Just 15 days after an Andy Farrell-coached Ireland defence stymied England at Twickenham, a Stuart Lancaster-coached Leinster attack ended Saracens’ bid for a third-straight European title at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Both men were among the high-profile casualties following England’s pool stage exit at their own Rugby World Cup in 2015, but they have since excelled in new roles and have proven themselves to be irksome thorns in English rugby’s side.
The need for the RFU to have a clean break after that RWC was understandable.
If Lancaster and Farrell had been retained by England in one role or another and Eddie Jones brought in, there would have undoubtedly been a power struggle. It would have also taken the legs out from underneath Lancaster – see Nick Kennedy at London Irish – and have been, for want of a better word, a bit of a slap in the face.
The inaction of Premiership clubs to snap the pair up, though, looks worse by the day.
Missing out on Farrell was perhaps inevitable, given the interest the IRFU had in him and the chance for redemption at international level having been too much to pass up. The Lancaster snub, though, was head-scratching at the time and now, with hindsight, it’s progressed to a facepalm-level decision.
Whatever you may have thought of his selections as England head coach, his focus on creating a very humble culture and his ability to cut it at that elite level, Lancaster is, at his core, a creative, attacking coach, who actually coaches, actively developing players, rather than just preparing them for the game at the weekend.
If you think English rugby can afford to lose a person like that, you’ve not been watching.
How many great attacking-minded English coaches are there around at the moment?
Kevin Sorrell and Ali Hepher have done very well at Saracens and Exeter Chiefs, without reinventing the wheel, whilst Lee Blackett orchestrates perhaps the most electric attack in England at Wasps.
Dave Walder’s reputation is growing up at Newcastle Falcons, Paul Deacon has Sale playing well, Sam Vesty’s hire is great news for Northampton Saints and it would be interesting to see how Paul Hodgson would do with a better calibre of player at his disposal.
That’s seven in the Premiership, a competition which consists of 12 teams, whilst the England national team continue to operate without a specialised attack coach.
There are some on the outside, too, who have slipped through the net or seem to be ignored.
Brian Ashton, an arch-innovator, has been left out in the cold since 2008, Ben Ward is doing wonders at Ealing but making that leap to the Premiership is difficult to say the least and the improvements in Italy’s attacking play have Mike Catt’s fingerprints all over them.
The Wellington U16 Rugby festival is currently going on this week and several academy managers there were so enthused by the opportunity for player – and coach – development the festival provides, because, unfortunately, much of that player development ends when players progress from the U18s and move into the seniors.
At the senior level, where results matter so much and can be the difference between relegation and survival, or making it into the more lucrative Champions Cup, there is such a focus on the match at the weekend, making sure the set-piece is fine-tuned and players are physically ready for it, that actually improving players becomes much less of a priority.
Inevitably, these are areas where promising younger players will struggle to compete with experienced veterans and it can see youngsters, especially those that aren’t the immediately obvious elite-level talents, fall behind and get forgotten.
There’s a compelling case for CARDS, the coaching philosophy that permeates English age-grade rugby, to be more heavily incorporated at the post-U18 levels. It stands for creativity, awareness, resilience, decision-making and self-organisation, attributes which, at least this season, a few Premiership clubs could certainly have used a bit more of.
This should make coaches who put a premium on improving and developing players, such as Lancaster, a valuable addition to any club.
Pat Lam took a Connacht side that looked down and out and made them PRO12 champions, because he found under-the-radar prospects and players with unfulfilled potential and turned them into a wonderfully creative and cohesive unit.
Wayne Pivac has done a similar job with the Scarlets, albeit they probably had less distance to travel than Connacht did when Lam first arrived.
Saracens and Exeter coaches have done fantastic jobs and this is no slight on them, but they have very good and very expensive squads. If you look at the calibre of player and what they are being paid, you would expect trophies from both teams.
The closest the Premiership has to a story like Connacht or Scarlets in recent memory is probably the current Newcastle side, who are right in the playoff mix, despite spending less than all the teams around them in the table.
Will they win the title this season? Perhaps, and it would be a great story, but you’d be a bold man to bet against Saracens or Exeter, who now have all their internationals back and have the sole focus of Premiership glory.
Premiership teams should be busting a gut to bring Lancaster back from Ireland.
And they may need to. Who would want to leave Leinster right now? Not only are they favourites to win the Champions Cup this season, but they’re also a team with a whole host of budding stars in their early-to-mid 20’s and they look as though they will be extremely competitive for years to come.
It’s not just Lancaster senior who has been sticking it to England of late, but also his son, Dan, an U17 player for Yorkshire Carnegie.
The younger Lancaster missed out on England U18 duty this season and instead threw his lot in with Scotland, helping his new nation to a 32-27 win over England in the U18 Six Nations festival, a result which was a remarkable turnaround from England’s 64-0 win over the Scots a few weeks before.
The good news for England fans? Lancaster may well throw his lot back in with England next year, when current U18s Manu Vunipola, George Barton, Kieran Wilkinson and Tom de Glanville will all have graduated from the side and the fly-half hierarchy will be a little less congested.
The frustration is not that England aren’t competitive with the best nations in the world. They are. Their peerless resources and enviable player pool will make it very difficult for them not to be.
The frustration is that those inherent advantages that English rugby has are still not fully realised. It is not arrogance to say England should be better than Ireland, Wales and Scotland. They have the ingredients to be consistently at a higher level, but when the narrowing in rugby occurs – elite club level and international – England lose much of their advantage and it becomes a far more level playing field. This is something that doesn’t seem to affect New Zealand to anywhere near the same degree.
Bringing Lancaster back to England is not a magic cure for that, but he is the kind of coach and big picture man who can help see that age-grade advantage transition into the seniors, whether that’s as a Premiership director of rugby, head coach or attack coach, or even in a role similar to the ones Don Barrell and Dean Ryan occupy at the RFU, but with the Premiership instead.
Forget Stuart Lancaster England head coach.
Think about the possibility of Stuart Lancaster coach.
Comments on RugbyPass
I remember towards the end of the original broadcasting deal for Super rugby with Newscorp that there was talk about the competition expanding to improve negotiations for more money - more content, more cash. Professional rugby was still in its infancy then and I held an opposing view that if Super rugby was a truly valuable competition then it should attract more broadcasters to bid for the rights, thereby increasing the value without needing to add more teams and games. Unfortunately since the game turned professional, the tension between club, talent and country has only grown further. I would argue we’re already at a point in time where the present is the future. The only international competitions that matter are 6N, RC and RWC. The inter-hemisphere tours are only developmental for those competitions. The games that increasingly matter more to fans, sponsors and broadcasters are between the clubs. Particularly for European fans, there are multiple competitions to follow your teams fortunes every week. SA is not Europe but competes in a single continental competition, so the travel component will always be an impediment. It was worse in the bloated days of Super rugby when teams traversed between four continents - Africa, America, Asia and Australia. The percentage of players who represent their country is less than 5% of the professional player base, so the sense of sacrifice isn’t as strong a motivation for the rest who are more focused on playing professional rugby and earning as much from their body as they can. Rugby like cricket created the conundrum it’s constantly fighting a losing battle with.
3 Go to commentsOh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on their @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
3 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
3 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
7 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to commentsThanks for that Marshy, noticed you didn't say who is gonna win it. We know who ain't gonna win it - your Crusaders outfit. They've gone from having arguably the best Super Rugby first five ever, to having a clutch of rookies. Hurricanes all the way!
1 Go to commentsGeez you really have to question the NRLs ability to produce players of quality. Its pathetic. Dont the 25mil in Aus produce enough quality womens players. Sad.
1 Go to commentsBulls fan here, and agree 100% with the conclusion (and little else) of this article. SA sides should absolutely f-off from the champs cup until we get fair scheduling, equal support for travel arrangements and home semis. You know, like all the european teams get.
26 Go to commentsI’m yet to see why Grace would be an ABs contender. He’s pedestrian and lacks the dominance required of a top flight 8.
11 Go to comments