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Ex-England boss Stuart Lancaster rules out Premiership return as Leinster staff sign contract extensions

(Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Any possibility of former England head coach Stuart Lancaster returning to the Gallagher Premiership any time soon has been dashed after Leinster announced a fresh two-year extension for their coveted senior coach.

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Every time a top-flight vacancy has cropped up in the last number of years, Lancaster’s name has inevitably been linked with the position and it has been the same in recent months following the departure of Paul Gustard as the Harlequins director of rugby.

Lancaster, though, has always repeatedly stated how happy he has been working at Leinster, whom he initially joined in September 2016, and he will be now be at the Irish province until 2023 following his latest extension.

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Johnny Sexton looks ahead to Ireland’s Six Nations finale versus England

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Johnny Sexton looks ahead to Ireland’s Six Nations finale versus England

The ex-England coach, who was in charge of his country from 2012 through to the 2015 World Cup having previously coached Leeds in the Premiership, wasn’t the only management staff rewarded by the club that will seek to win a fourth Guinness PRO14 title in succession when they host Munster in Dublin on March 27.

Two-year extensions were also agreed with Felipe Contepomi and Robin McBryde, while a one-year extension was agreed with head coach Leo Cullen, who has been in the job since 2015. Leinster CEO Mick Dawson said: “The discussions with Leo, and indeed with all the coaches, have gone very smoothly and I would like to thank Leo and Stuart, Felipe and Robin for their patience and understanding in what is for everyone in society a challenging situation.

“Under Leo’s stewardship, the club has enjoyed unprecedented success reaching seven finals in that time, including Saturday week’s game against Munster, and of course there is still the small matter of a European season to conclude this year and a game with Toulon only weeks away.

“This success has been achieved in tandem with Stuart, Felipe and Robin and there was no hesitation on our part in offering them all extended terms and we very much look forward to working with them into the future.”

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Explaining the twelve-month difference in the length of contracts penned by Cullen and the other staff, Dawson added: “We offered Leo a two-year deal and were very happy to do so, but Leo, for his own personal reasons, has instead chosen a rolling one-year contract which we respect.

“It is very much our hope that Leo will sit down with us again next season and that he will indicate a willingness to commit for a second season, and we will discuss that possibility when the time is right.

“Until that time, we are delighted to have Leo on board and we look forward to working with him, with Stuart, Felipe and Robin and indeed with the rest of the coaching and backroom team to build on the fantastic work already underway.”

Cullen said: “As Mick has stated, I was offered a two-year extension but requested a one-year rolling extension instead. This is purely down to personal circumstances and I would like to thank the IRFU and Leinster for their understanding in that regard.

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“In saying that, I would like to reaffirm my absolute commitment to Leinster. Anyone who knows me will know that my loyalty lies here.”

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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TRENDING Everyone is saying the same thing after agonising England loss Everyone is saying the same thing after agonising England loss
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