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Lancaster completes one year

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Stuart Lancaster, the head coach of the England Rugby Team reflected on completing one year in charge of the national side, stating that the team is in a far better condition at this moment that it was just one year back. The English rugby union opted for the relatively inexperienced coach to lead the team out of their disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign in 2011 where they were knocked out in the quarter finals.

Lancaster went in to the Six Nations Championship 2012 with single capped Chris Robshaw as the leader of the team and finished second in the tournament and built on that success with a win against the world champions New Zealand in November. Speaking on completing a year in charge of the England Rugby Team, Lancaster stated that at this point last year, they were sitting on the back of a disastrous Rugby World Cup campaign with 15 newly capped players as well as a new captain and the key at that time was getting the culture absolutely spot on.

Lancaster went on to state that although the team has not won each and every game, it hasn’t been smashed in any game either. He added that the team is cultured in a way now so as to take advantage of that sensational win against the All Blacks and build on that success to achieve the consistency required to succeed at the very top level and mentioned that there is absolutely no better place to achieve that than in the Six Nations Championship.

After taking over the England Rugby Team, Lancaster has gone for youth instead of experience and he has seen his young players reward his faith in them and the big boss man is now looking for his charges to lead the team to glory.

England Beat New Zealand with an Impressive Finish

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For the very first time, England rugby team stormed a victory against New Zealand rugby team with scores 38-21. Chris Ashton thawed everyone with his unique tries, Brad Barritt too showed up his excellent skills and it was Manu Tuilagi who made the difference to the match with his turn from the center and New Zealand was let with not her option other than to bit the dust. In turn, England could successfully maintain the winning streak against the All Blacks’ 20-game.

The match quickly became predictable after the performance that the England rugby team began to deliver. The team sped up to a 32-14 lead by an hour after the three tries in ten minutes that were delivered by Ashton, Barritt and Tuilagi. New Zealand team was left with no time to recover and they had to succumb to the might of the British.

New Zealand had good reasons as to why they lost the game. It was mainly because of a valuable penalty that the world class fly-half Dan Carter of New Zealand missed badly. England totally used this chance and went on to lead the game early enough. Then there flowed in with ease the highest points against the All Blacks, the highest ever.

The win was the first for England in the QBE Autumn Internationals, after losing out to Australia and South Africa, the pressurized England rugby team has gained back some confidence after winning against New-Zealand with such a big score difference. England’s captain, back row Chris Robshaw, told the BBC that the win was “a great way to finish off the autumn series.”

It is New Zealand’s second loss after last year where they lost against Australia in a Tri-Nation on 27th August 2011. Previously they had had wins of 20 games in their bag.

Foden Sidelined with Injury

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Ben Foden, the full back for the England Rugby Team faces up to several weeks on the sidelines after sustaining an injury that will see him miss out on important preparations ahead of a tough schedule of Tests for the England team. According to the reports, Foden has damaged his ankle ligaments severely and although he is yet to consult a specialist on the matter, it is being believed that the star for the Northampton Saints faces a lengthy layoff from the game.

The Aviva Premiership Rugby Union released a statement on their official website regarding the injury sustained by Foden, but there were no elaborate reports on the extent of the injury. According to the statement released by The Saints, their star man severely damaged ankle ligaments during their Aviva Premiership encounter against Bath Rugby and will consult a specialist in a short while. And that comes as extremely negative news for the England Rugby Team which has seen its preparations already hampered by a number of injuries to key members of the squad.

The statement further read that it is being assumed that the player will be out of action for a significant number of weeks, but nothing can be said for sure before the players sees a specialist. And the injury to Foden comes as a shock for the Northampton Saints as well, who have enjoyed the best possible start to the new season of the Premiership with back to back wins against Gloucester Rugby, Exeter Chiefs and Bath Rugby.

The England Rugby Team faces the Fiji national team at Twickenham on the 10th of November before clashing against Australia, New Zealand and South Africa and the injury to Foden couldn’t come a worst time for the England team and their manager Stuart Lancaster as well as for The Saints.

Replacement for Launchbury

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Officials of England Rugby have been forced into a change of personnel in their squad of 42 strong that only arrived in South Africa on Friday, the 1st of June for the three tests, and five match tour of The Springboks. Uncapped flanker Jamie Gibson of the London Irish has been drafted into the side after it was revealed that Joe Launchbury, the lock for the London Wasps will not be able to take any part on the tour thanks to a knee injury that had been troubling him for some time now, culminating finally in ruling him out of the duty against South Africa.

Stuart Lancaster, the coach of the England Rugby team was speaking at a press conference where he made the announcement of Gibson replacing the injured Launchbury for the tour. According to the coach, the Wasps lock had the niggling knee problem for quite some time and he aggravated the injury during the last training session that the team had at home before embarking on the tour.

He also added that the medical personnel had made an assessment of the injury back home and it has now been confirmed that Launchbury will play no part in the tour of South Africa. And this injury to Launchbury is not the only thing that is bothering the coach. Manu Tuilagi, the Samoa born England back sat out of the first training session for the team on the tour with a foot injury and although it is believed to be nothing serious, Lancaster will be praying that he is not robbed of yet another quality player.

Lancaster is being seen as the savior of England Rugby after its dreadful performances in the Rugby World Cup of 2011 and he is hoping that the players’ injuries do not become an obstacle in that mission.

LANCASTER NAMED MANAGER

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Stuart Lancaster was appointed as the head coach of the England Rugby Team on a permanent basis just on Thursday and he has gone down to work already, laying his blue print ahead of the 2015 Rugby World Cup on home soil and he already has elaborate plans for success in the tournament where the hosts will start as one of the pre tournament favorites to lift the famous trophy.

Lancaster landed one of the most prestigious jobs in the world of rugby on a permanent basis after a string of impressive performances as an interim boss during which time; he led the team to 4 wins out of five in the recently concluded Six Nations tournament that culminated in 30-9 humiliation of the Ireland national team at Twickenham earlier in the month. Nick Mallett, the former head coach of the South African and Italian national teams was also in the running for the job as head coach of the England Rugby Team but according to the reports, what clinched the deal for the 42 year old was his immense popularity among the players and the fans and his decent record with the team.

The former Leeds Carnegie player said that this appointment as the head coach of his own national team was a very proud feeling for him and it meant that he had reached the pinnacle of his short coaching career.

But he is not ready to rest on his achievements and wants to lead his team back to the top and the only way to do it, according to Lancaster is by winning the Rugby World Cup 2015 that will take place on home soil and he believes that with the squad that the England Rugby Team has at the moment, failure to win the tournament is not even an option.

LANCASTER VS MALLETT

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Despite winning 3 out of 4 Six Nations games and seemingly improving England beyond recognition since taking over it is still unclear whether Stuart Lancaster will be given the England job on a permanent basis. It appears now to be a two horse race between Lancaster and former Italy boss Nick Mallett.

Former England Flanker, Lewis Moody is clear on his views he has come out clearly and said he feels that the current set up should become the permanent one because they have “been there and done it”. It is that they have experience coaching England, but when Moody made those comments they had only experience it in three matches, compare that to the experience, particularly internationally of nick Mallett.

He took a South Africa team, so often damaged by Politics and outside meddling on an outstanding 17 match winning run, he took Italy to levels they could not have dreamed of, namely beating France in last year’s Six Nations and he has guided both of these sides through two impressive World Cup campaigns, nearly defeating the great Australian side of 1999 in a thrilling semi final. And in between all of these triumphs he still found time to win back to back French League titles with Stade Francais. Mallett has in short always been a success wherever he has gone.

Since leaving the Italy job he has shown even further the levels he demands from his players. Before Italy’s clash with Ireland he commented that if Italy were more than one converted score of Ireland at half time they would be on the wrong end of a drubbing, highlighting mental weakness. Harsh it seems, but he was right and it was an issue that was never really a case in his time as Italy’s coach.

Mallett also provides a knowledge of the England side that many do not see, his time as Italy coach and his subsequent work as a pundit for South African TV has given him the chance to develop an intrinsic knowledge of the England side and this would no doubt come through.

So the choice seems to be between Lancaster, who has already proven to be a success, or Mallett who would no doubt be a success. Either way the RFU have two very strong candidates and the prospects look good for English Rugby.