Lancaster: 'A real strength' that Ireland have compared to England
Ex-England boss Stuart Lancaster has explained why his country’s wider player pool from across the Gallagher Premiership is a far more challenging task to handle than the setup at Guinness Six Nations rivals Ireland. The current Leinster senior coach was in charge across four championship campaigns during his stint from 2012 to 2015, his England team finishing second every year before they went on to be eliminated from the 2015 World Cup in the pool stages.
The Premiership at that time in the Lancaster era was a twelve-team league but it now has 13 participants and the spread of talent across the league is evident in the origin of the 37 England players that Eddie Jones brought with him to Brighton for the week-long training camp ahead of the 2022 Six Nations that will start with a February 5 trip to Scotland.
Jones has players from twelve different clubs with him at the moment, Worcester the only team not to have any player involved. Premiership leaders Leicester lead the way, the recall of George Ford on Monday to replace injured skipper Owen Farrell bumping up the Tigers contingent in the England squad to six, one player more than the five that Harlequins, Exeter and Saracens have each provided (Saracens’ number was bumped up with Nick Isiekwe called in as injury cover for Courtney Lawes, who is going through the return to play concussion protocol).
Four clubs, meanwhile, have one player each included – Wasps, Newcastle, Gloucester (now that Jonny May has pulled out injured) and London Irish – with Bristol (two), Sale and Bath (three each), and Northampton (four each) completing the makeup of the squad.
In contrast, the 37-strong Ireland squad that Andy Farrell currently has with him in Portugal for their warm-weather camp consists of 16 players from Lancaster’s Leinster, nine from Munster, eight from Ulster and four from Connacht.
SQUAD NEWS: The try-scorer in the Ireland win over the All Blacks is missing from Andy Farrell's Six Nations list#Ireland #SixNationshttps://t.co/tRrIrc8gb0
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Farrell worked under Lancaster as his England defence coach and having now seen at close-hand how both international team setups operate from his time working in Dublin at provincial level since 2016, the ex-England boss has outlined why Leinster potentially having up to ten to twelve players in an Ireland XV is “a real strength”.
Asked by the Irish Daily Star whether having one club team so heavily dominate a national side was a good or a bad thing, Lancaster said: “One of the challenges with England was having twelve teams and usually the spread was not even but there was usually three or four for most of the top clubs, specifically top eight.
“The challenge for me at the time, I remember when I first took over the sort of top teams Saracens, Bath, Northampton, Leicester, all four of them played differently, very differently. Obviously, they clearly believed in the way that they were playing because they had achieved success, getting to Premiership semi-finals and finals.
“And so what you were faced with then is trying to merge those different opinions on how the game should be played from a player’s perspective into ‘this is the way we’re going to play’. You’re trying to take the best of all the teams where the players come from, which is a challenge when you have got that many teams.
“In Ireland, obviously, having four teams who are all different in their own way but in some ways, the emphasis is similar in the way in which the teams are coached because that is why the games are always so competitive. So for Andy, it’s a real strength. In terms of balance from one side, you can see from the likes of the Munster, Ulster and Connacht players getting rewarded for their form. So you know, that is the nature of the beast in Ireland.
“The challenge is to create a team that has cohesion and can execute for the staff because the Six Nations is a results-based business and one thing I’d say in Ireland’s benefit is our stability in selection and stability in the coaching.
“A great November series to bounce on the back of whereas you look at the other teams, you France have made ten changes on Monday, England have got some new players coming in who not been in the international environment before, so Ireland are in a good place. But from a national perspective with England, it definitely was a challenge for sure.”
So it is about the best players or units that work together on club teams? “There is a lot more pluses than minuses for sure. There is a company called Gain Line Analytics and it looks at team cohesion. Basically, their premise is that the team that has the most experience of playing together generally comes out on top when all things are equal.
“It isn’t solely club combinations, you can have international combinations. So you would like to say, Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton, even though they don’t play in the same club, they know each other inside out from playing internationally.
“One thing that creates it as well as time together is training so when you come together internationally again, to have the benefit of a good November series, a good Six Nations, a good summer tour to Zealand, all that level of cohesion builds and builds and builds and the end goal is to have good 2023 World Cup on the back of our cohesion.
“Yeah, Ireland are in a good place whether it is club cohesion, whether it’s Caelan (Doris), Jack (Conan) and Josh (van der Flier) playing together, a lineout call or a lineout throw, it all important that is for sure.”
Comments on RugbyPass
SBW’s bro’town commentary and lazy default to hyperbole should be ignored, a technical analyst he is not. Sotutu is a good player when games get goosey loosey, high skill set that fans of Zinzan recall with starry eyes. But you need power and mongrel at no8 in the Test arena and Sotutu gets found wanting there, much like Akira Ioane. No8’s like Zinzan and Ardie have bucketloads of mongrel and power and tenacity which allow the skill sets to flourish.
11 Go to commentsAn inside pass to attacker on the angle can make a drift defence look lead footed. Relies on fleet footed forward/s to get across from the breakdown. An argument for the smaller faster 7 perhaps?
3 Go to commentsSensational tackle. The reds one was late and rightly penalised. The other two were simultaneous with the pass. If nitpicking TMOs can’t find fault there clearly isn’t any.
1 Go to commentsBrumbies fully deserved their win on the back of their physicality and desire to control the ball. Xavier Numia, Asafo Aumua and Tyrel Lomax should be the ABs starting front row when we start our test schedule. They have “come of age” and have bested all they have faced as well as been dominant with ball in hand in making the gainline. With De Groot, Tamaiti Williams and Fletcher Newell backed up by Taukei'aho and Cody Taylor there's not an international front row that can trouble us. Can't wait to face the Boks over there, won't be no one point game this time.
5 Go to commentsKinda strange that he wasn’t with a premiership team or a higher level of rugby? Start playing late or something? With that kind of size and athleticism you’d think someone would have picked him up?
2 Go to commentsShows how much attitude matters. Last week the Brumbies got done, this week they dominated the tournament leaders, who were likely thinking they could cruise to victory.
5 Go to commentsA Turtle has more pace and leg drive than Owen Franks, so it’s a good thing he only had to run 90 metres for that try.
2 Go to commentsOh Tamati Tua was in the vastly over-rated Leon MacDonalds Blues system? Well, no wonder he was wasted, much like Emoni Narawa and Jacob Ratumaitavuki-Kneepkens under MacDonald. now look at them. Good thing Tua isn’t eligible, the Aussies latch on to any player who isn’t tied down.
5 Go to commentsMark Telea is a lot of things, but a defensive juggernaut has never been one of them. There will be far bigger tests in that regard for the youngster.
11 Go to commentsLove and respect to Fiji but not a chance outside of 7s
4 Go to commentsGood summation Ned. Agree the Canes were out-muscled for once (except at the scrum!) by a focused Brumbies outfit. Tua deserves consideration for higher honors after the way he humbled Jordie and the Canes defense. Thankfully, his lack of eligibility for Oz keeps him from Joe’s plans. While I also agree the injuries affected the Canes performance, some players seemed to lack focus and intensity for this match. Perhaps after the Blues demolished the Brumbies, they thought it was going to be easy? A good reminder that any slip up in preparation can have a big affect on the result. Brumbies deserved that win.
5 Go to commentsKarl Dixon should never have been appointed this fixture, absolute disgrace, He’s not much of a referee anyway, didn't have the balls to send his mate care off
5 Go to commentsBrilliant article! Harry of 8/9
3 Go to comments‘UK athletes' have been in the NFL from the start.
2 Go to commentsIt’s going to be Scott Barrett. He’s the coaches mate and captain of a previously elite team. Ardie a great option but scooter has worked with the coach and Ardie still as big a leader as needed.
23 Go to commentsI commend Colin Scotts bio All Balls. He was the first Aussie to make it to NFL. But he was poached and did a full apprenticeship at the University of Hawaii. He was 130kgs surfed played 1st grade cricket etc. big guy by normal but not NFL standards and a top athlete. Even then the nfl were picking up Tongans and Samoans for their natural size and explosive power. They want explosive power not cardio from the big boys so a guy like Taniela Tupou would have been good if picked up young enough. He has fast twitch and they’d bulk the little lad up and give him something to do. soccer teams set up academies and look for Over Sara’s talent eg Messi was at Barcelona since a teenager and harry kewell went to Leeds as a teenager like 16 or something.
11 Go to commentsThe article alludes to the fact that this isn’t about picking a captain. But picking a great captain. So who would make for a great All Black captain - not just an obvious or safe shoo-in? I’m not sure Ardie’s the guy and Barret doesn’t stand out either.
23 Go to commentsI guess we may all agree on the fact, that the ABs and Boks are the two in contest for No 1 in rugby history (the triple-A sort of) …. the Wallabies, England and France are the next tier, with Ireland being the new kid in town (AA) …. in my view it makes little sense creating imaginary competitions (unless you have too much time to waste)
45 Go to commentsWhat a joke. Total joke and the pundits commentating, all of whom know a bit about the game, could barely disguise their contempt. Reaching for the card then pulling back when he realised a red card would carry further match suspensions is simply not his decision to make. A clear and obvious influence on the outcome of this match and indeed, the championship path.
5 Go to commentsI like the idea, in NZ the Ranfurly Shield and NPC coexist, both having their own bragging rights. The World Cup would be the pinnacle, but the competition and travels of these trophies would be interesting.
45 Go to comments