WHEN STUART LANCASTER took charge of Connacht last summer he inherited an entire squad and coaching team that he had no input into.
All the players were already there and so were the coaches. There was a senior assistant coach (Rod Seib), a scrum and contact coach (Cullie Tucker), and a lineout and maul coach (John Muldoon). No specialist attack coach and no defence coach. So Lancaster took on those roles himself.
The attack has fired all season but it is the work Lancaster has done on defence since Christmas is what has turned Connacht’s season as they prepare for a tilt at the Challenge Cup and qualification in the URC.
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When Connacht lost to Leinster in January at the official opening of Dexcom Stadium, their average concession was 25.5 points per match. On their six-match winning run since then the average number of points conceded is 14.
Their scoring return has dipped marginally from 30 points to 25.5 since then but that statistic was influenced by a haul of 75 points against a disinterested Montauban side.
Lancaster knows that keeping Montpellier to 14 points in Saturday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final will be a tall order but he knows they are in with a shout if they can prevent calamities such as letting a 17-point lead slip in the final 14 minutes as they did in the 33-31 to Montpellier when they met in the pool stage in January.
Lancaster said that while he oversaw attack and defence it was a joint effort from all the coaching team which has put them into this position.
“We’re a very fluid coaching team. I think a lot of teams generally sometimes have a head coach, an attack coach, a defence coach, whatever, but the model here is that I’d be the head coach, so I would lead on the framework of our attack and our defence,” said Lancaster.
“Then we have Rod Seib would obviously be the backs coach, and John Muldoon and Cullie do the forwards. But within that, Rod obviously has a big influence on attack. Maul helps out in the tackle contest.
Cullie’s very good at the ruck. So we all have little other jobs to do. The actual system would be the system that I’ve coached going all the way back to my time at Leinster, for sure.”
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Lancaster makes case for the defence as he tightens the rearguard
WHEN STUART LANCASTER took charge of Connacht last summer he inherited an entire squad and coaching team that he had no input into.
All the players were already there and so were the coaches. There was a senior assistant coach (Rod Seib), a scrum and contact coach (Cullie Tucker), and a lineout and maul coach (John Muldoon). No specialist attack coach and no defence coach. So Lancaster took on those roles himself.
The attack has fired all season but it is the work Lancaster has done on defence since Christmas is what has turned Connacht’s season as they prepare for a tilt at the Challenge Cup and qualification in the URC.
When Connacht lost to Leinster in January at the official opening of Dexcom Stadium, their average concession was 25.5 points per match. On their six-match winning run since then the average number of points conceded is 14.
Their scoring return has dipped marginally from 30 points to 25.5 since then but that statistic was influenced by a haul of 75 points against a disinterested Montauban side.
Lancaster knows that keeping Montpellier to 14 points in Saturday’s Challenge Cup quarter-final will be a tall order but he knows they are in with a shout if they can prevent calamities such as letting a 17-point lead slip in the final 14 minutes as they did in the 33-31 to Montpellier when they met in the pool stage in January.
Lancaster said that while he oversaw attack and defence it was a joint effort from all the coaching team which has put them into this position.
“We’re a very fluid coaching team. I think a lot of teams generally sometimes have a head coach, an attack coach, a defence coach, whatever, but the model here is that I’d be the head coach, so I would lead on the framework of our attack and our defence,” said Lancaster.
“Then we have Rod Seib would obviously be the backs coach, and John Muldoon and Cullie do the forwards. But within that, Rod obviously has a big influence on attack. Maul helps out in the tackle contest.
Cullie’s very good at the ruck. So we all have little other jobs to do. The actual system would be the system that I’ve coached going all the way back to my time at Leinster, for sure.”
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Backs and forwards Coach Connacht Lancaster