IN THE SEVEN years Stuart Lancaster has called Dublin home, the Leinster senior coach hasn’t felt the need to have a television in his flat.
Any rugby he needs to watch can be accessed through the laptop, and when it comes to free time, the former England head coach prefers to spend his time with a book in his hands. The accumulation of paperbacks has presented something of a problem as the Englishman heads into his last couple of weeks living in Ireland, as he prepares to set off for a new life with Racing in Paris.
“What I do in the evenings, when I’m not watching rugby I guess, I buy books and read books,” Lancaster explains. “So I’ve had this massive library of books emerge so I was thinking ‘what the hell am I going to do with all of these books now?’
“I’ve got my favourites and I put them in a bag and some have gone to Leeds but I’ve still got another 50 books so every day, in the morning before I go to the gym, I take down five books and put them in the free library and gradually my book supply has gone, so there have been hundreds of books I’ve given away and now the flat is looking pretty empty because there is only a week left.”
The aim was to have two weeks left, but Saturday’s URC semi-final defeat to Munster means this week now stands as Leinster’s only chance to land silverware this season.
It’s quite a way for Lancaster to sign off – a Heineken Champions Cup final against La Rochelle on home soil. A win would put to bed the demons of last year’s final and the various disappointments since Leinster last won the tournament in 2018, but Lancaster says he’ll always be proud of the work he’s done since arriving at the province in 2016, even if they don’t get over the line this weekend.
It won’t define me personally. I think ultimately what defines you really is your integrity and your values and your ability to build relationships, and get on with people and develop people.
“That’s what I’ve tried to do while I’ve been here. I’ve been around rugby long enough to know that there are so many variables that can happen in any game, that can influence the outcome, that you’re not in control of as a coach.
“You can have a sending off in the first minute, the bounce of a ball goes here, a refereeing decision goes there, so it’s trying not to hold on too tight to the outcome really, and then making sure I enjoy the last week here.
“The last thing I want to do is be consumed by the result. I want to enjoy the occasion, enjoy the week, enjoy what happens at the end, but then look back as a brilliant period in my career, and hopefully not the last time I’m back. And I do genuinely mean that. I would like to come back.”
It’s clear that Leinster, and Ireland, has made a huge impression on the 53-year-old, and asked to expand on his desire to come back, Lancaster confirms he’d like to coach in this part of the world again some day.
“Definitely. It definitely feels like a big step to leave for me, personally. Obviously in the background (with Racing), you’re trying to organise a coaching team and recruit players and everything else, there’s been times I’ve sat on Zoom calls thinking, ‘I’ve absolutely no idea about what that guy’s said’.
“So the language barrier, the Top 14, I’ll have to play La Rochelle twice next year, no matter who we’ve got in Europe and that’s without throwing in Toulon and Toulouse and everyone else. So it’s going to be a hell of a coaching challenge, trying to build a team in the identity of rugby that I believe in but not cutting across what Racing are about.
“So yeah, it feels like a big challenge but it’s one I feel I’m ready for and ultimately in four years time or however long it lasts, I think I’ll be a better coach on the back of that and you look at the great football managers or the great American Football coaches, when they’re at their best is when they’re in their late 50s, their 60s, I think.
So hopefully I still have a bit to go before I achieve that and Ireland will always be a place I’d love to come back to, definitely.”
Lancaster’s time in Dublin has fully restored a reputation that was left damaged by England’s disappointing showing at the 2015 World Cup, with his insight on the Leinster training pitch complimenting Leo Cullen’s role in overseeing the bigger picture.
Would he ever be tempted back to the international arena?
“Maybe, but I do genuinely love the day to day, I love the games and the preparation and build-up to the games.
“Test Rugby, I remember Kevin Bowring [former Wales coach] used to say to me, is like a tidal wave coming at you and it hits you for three games and then you get this period of two months when you’re not getting knocked over by this massive wave, and then you’ve got another tidal wave coming. Whereas in club rugby there’s this storm all the time, it feels like, and it will particularly feel like that going to France, I think.
“So, yeah. You never say never to anything, really, but I’m obviously committed for the next four years so we’ll see how we go.”
Before all that, there is the small matter of La Rochelle this weekend. Ronan O’Gara’s side pipped Leinster by three points in last year’s final in Marseille. The season before, it was a nine-point defeat in the semi-final stages. Saturday looks primed to be another epic installment to what has become a fascinating rivalry.
For La Rochelle, it’s a third straight apperance in the Champions Cup final. Unsurprisingly, Lancaster has been highly impressed by the team O’Gara has built.
“They’re obviously competitive on both sides of the ball in that defensively they’re very strong and they’ll got aggressive linespeed, competitive at the breakdown and in attack they have the capacity, because of the size of the forwards, to play a tight game but also a game with width because they have power and pace in the backline. If you were going to pick your dream backline to recruit, you’d have power, pace and footballers, and La Rochelle have all three.
“So they’re a very complete team and really well organised on both sides of the ball. Teams generally tend to be strong on one or the other, but they’re strong on both.”
Leinster go into the final on the back of a bitterly disappointing URC semi-final loss to Munster, and while many of the personnel will change this week, the group will still carry lessons from Saturday’s contest at the Aviva into the biggest game of their season.
“I won’t say what they are, but there were probably four clear things that we could have done better in that game that we’ll definitely use as learnings going into this game,” Lancaster continues.
“Definitely, there was 44 minutes ball in play; it’s a game at the highest level of club rugby, certainly in Ireland. On 77 minutes we had the ball on their line and we lost the game, there’s definitely lessons to be learnt.
Equally, what you don’t want to do is spend the whole week analysing that game and not thinking about what’s coming around the corner.
“You want to win (this weekend),” he adds. “The goal for the season is to win the double and it’s bloody hard to do.
“La Rochelle lost the quarter-final of the Top 14 to Toulouse (last year), the best teams in France (Toulouse) lost the semi-finals last year so it’s unbelievably hard to do.
“It narrows the focus (this week), for sure. It was always do or die but it’s definitely do or die now.”
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