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Leinster face battle to hold on to Lancaster
By Ian Cameron
Irish giants Leinster appear to have a battle on their hands if they want to keep senior coach Stuart Lancaster.
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The highly-rated Yorkshireman – according to reports in England and in France – is on the shopping list of big-spending Parisians Racing 92.
Racing are looking to replace outgoing head coach Laurent Travers and are eyeing up to the former England head coach as the man to fit the bill.
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If Racing make a big offer for the 52-year-old, it is unlikely that Leinster would be able to live with it financially.
Lancaster is however reportedly very happy at Leinster, where he still has a year left to run on his current contract. Part of Lancaster’s set-up with the Irish province is that it enables him to commute several times a week between Dublin and his hometown of Leeds, where his family reside – a distance that he was quoted as saying in 2016 is closer than Twickenham.
Lancaster is widely credited with much of the success Leinster have enjoyed since he joined in 2016. After some relatively fallow years under Matt O’Connor, the men in blue went on to dominate the PRO14, aswell as winning the Heineken Champions Cup in 2018, as well as being perennial presences in the semi-finals and finals of the European competition.
The former Leeds Tykes head coach has been repeatedly linked with a number of Gallagher Premiership sides since he rehabilitated his coaching reputation at the Irish giants. Obviously, to date there’s been nothing tabled that has lured him away from Dublin.
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Another factor may be that Lancaster may wish to take the helm of a team once more. Although it’s viewed as something of a two-hander in coaching terms, technically, he plays second fiddle to head coach Leo Cullen at Leinster and the Englishman may wish to challenge himself once again as a head coach in one of the most fiercely competitive domestic competitions in world rugby.
Given Racing’s form in Europe in the last few seasons, he isn’t likely to be without high-stakes games in that department either.
The question now is whether or not Racing makes him an offer he can’t refuse.
