Tag: Lancaster

Stuart Lancaster Still Thinks His Team Can Win Six Nations Rugby

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Stuart Lancaster, the 45 years old Head Coach of England National Rugby Union team still thinks that his team still is capable of becoming the champion of Six Nations Rugby notwithstanding the fact that his team has lost the match against Ireland on Sunday, 1st March and along with it all the hopes of winning the Grand Slam.

It has been 12 years since England Rugby team managed to win Grand Slam. On Sunday’s Match, the England Rugby team managed to score only 9 points while their opponent, Ireland’s score was 19.

Ireland managed to win by a big margin indeed. The team still has a chance of winning Grand Slam this year but they have to compete in matches in Scotland and Wales. It has been six years since the last time Ireland won Grand Slam. England desperately needs to keep their morale up for matches against France and Scotland which are going to be held in their home ground. Continue reading “Stuart Lancaster Still Thinks His Team Can Win Six Nations Rugby”

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.

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.