Mick Dawson is the recently-departed Leinster chief executive, who brought Michael Cheika and Joe Schmidt to the famed Irish club and set the duo on the path to become international coaches.
Might he soon take some credit for a third Wallabies leader?
The Roar can reveal Stuart Lancaster, the former England coach, who was forced to relive his 2015 World Cup nightmare “every minute of every day” in the ensuing months before bursting back on the international scene with Leinster, has been shortlisted by Rugby Australia to take over from Schmidt.
It’s believed the 55-year-old met an RA official recently to discuss the role, which is widely tipped to be going to Les Kiss’ – the former Ireland assistant coach, who spent the best part of two decades coaching overseas, before quickly finding his feet back in Queensland.
But the question increasingly being asked is it it’s Kiss, what’s holding RA back from pulling the trigger?
After all, the Reds have made a strong start to the Super Rugby season. They are just one of four sides to have suffered only one defeat and are coming off important wins over the Waratahs and Highlanders across the ditch.
While RA’s preference would be for an Australian to take over, a competing factor is the stability the governing body would achieve by bringing in someone from the outside too.
Indeed, if Kiss, who is contracted with the Reds until 2026, was deemed the preferred candidate, it would leave the Super Rugby franchise searching for another coach just as they look set to challenge for a first title since 2011.
It might not just be Kiss who leaves either, with the Queensland coach intent on bringing all his assistants with him and RA being particularly interested in Zane Hilton.
As such, someone from the outside brings a certain appeal.
Stuart Lancaster helped get Leinster back on their feet after moving to Dublin following the 2015 World Cup. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Lancaster, who lost against Ireland just once as England coach, and holds a 2-1 record against Schmidt, certainly fits the bill.
In fact, Jamie Heaslip – the British and Irish Lions back-rower – puts Lancaster right up there alongside Schmidt as coaches he’s played under, having spent the twilight of his career under his mentorships at Leinster.
“He has big ambition for the club, he really likes the club, and he is a bit blown away by the fact that around 90-95% of the squad are actually from Leinster,” said Heaslip on the BBC’s Rugby Weekly podcast.
“He took a bit of time out post that World Cup, went to different environments and learned.
“I don’t know what he was like [coaching England], but he has definitely brought a really good intensity and structure to training.
“He’s been a massive addition in terms of playing and behind the scenes in terms of culture and how we want to be at Leinster.
“I put him up there with Joe Schmidt in terms of best coaches I have ever worked for.”
Heaslip also cited the freedom Lancaster encourages in his players and that his faith in their ability to attack inspires confidence in his squads.
“He was giving me the opportunity to be a lot more free and I think you saw that in that first season of Stuart being involved with us in terms of the freedom I had in the games.
“And I think that’s what he’s given to a lot of the back rows and to a lot of the players.”
Ireland prop Tadhg Furlong also credited the former England coach for his rise from Leinster to the Lions and added that Lancaster gave him the confidence to believe that he was capable of making the squad for the summer tour of New Zealand.
“It’s weird the journey you take when you get your first international start and you get exposed to that big world, and all its pressures,” Furlong told RTE Sport.
“As you get used to it and spend more time in that high-pressure environment, you can probably let your game play a bit more.
“I came out of the November Tests with a lot of confidence.
“When you start to put minutes on minutes it can give you that bit of confidence that you can start pushing towards or aiming for something.
“But I think the real moment, the focus for me this year, was when Stuart Lancaster came in to Leinster.
“He obviously hadn’t worked with a lot of the players there before.
“And when we sat down he said ‘from what I’ve seen you can really try to push on and aim to be a Lion this year’.
“At first I thought ‘jeez man, what are you saying?!’.
“You probably don’t see yourself in that picture. But he backed me, gave me a focus and a good drive towards it.”
Stuart Lancaster (L) with Jonathan Sexton with the Guinness PRO14 Cup after Leinster beat Glasgow Warriors at Celtic Park in Glasgow. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
Johnny Sexton, who worked under Cheika and Schmidt, was another who credited Lancaster for his work at Leinster.
“What a special coach to come in and do what he’s done,” Sexton said.
“He did an unbelievable job with England. That gets overlooked by one result; a result in the World Cup that could have gone either way against Wales. However, things turn out for a reason and we might not be European Champions today if England didn’t lose that game.”
Lancaster, who went on a fact-finding mission following the 2015 World Cup to try and work out his next move, which included a brief visit to the Queensland Reds, eventually arrived at Leinster after the Englishman’s name was spat out over a coffee by Leo Cullen, the club’s long-term coach.
Sensing something was needed at Leinster in the post-Schmidt years, the idea was concocted to have him work alongside Cullen.
Dawson put him in the same room as Cullen, asked if the pair could work together – and the rest is history.
Stuart Lancaster and Leo Cullen formed the perfect one-two act at Leinster. (Photo By Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
They could, they did, and the results were emphatic: five trophies in their first six years after just one in the previous three before Lancaster arrived.
“From a coach’s perspective, watching on, Stuart’s influence is on par with Joe’s (Schmidt),” Sean Skehan, the Leinster Schools head coach, told Garry Doyle in 2022.
“Joe came in and became the guy who was the IP for rugby in Ireland who initiated ideas and the rest of the game, both at professional level and domestically, used those.
“So, when Stuart came in, I thought what an incredible appointment. He had a contrasting philosophy to Joe. Stuart said, yes we need frameworks, we need patterns of play, but we need a more heads up approach to the game. Let’s move from command control, where the coach comes up with a plan and the players execute it, to a place where we empower the players to make decisions.
“Stuart’s brand is one of the most attractive rugby to watch on planet earth. Now look at the current Irish attack – that is the Stuart Lancaster attack. A lot of the players with Ireland are the same with Leinster and you can see the Irish players have taken the Stuart Lancaster attack and put their own ideas on it.”
He added: “When you hit on a Joe Schmidt, when you hit on a Stuart, you are hitting on a Jurgen Klopp and a Pep Guardiola, the best coach in world rugby. I’d still have Joe in that bracket. The likelihood of finding another Michael Cheika, another Joe, another Stuart, is tough to see.
“The next appointment is crucial for Irish rugby because the funny thing is you have more of a chance of setting your mark in the lab at a provincial set-up rather than with the more high-profile international team because of the amount of time a coach gets with the province. Strategy is often aligned to the dominant team. That is the case with Crusaders and New Zealand. That is currently the case with Leinster and Ireland.
“So can they get someone whose philosophy is a continuation of Stuart’s ideas? Can they hit on a brilliant appointment? You don’t have Mick Dawson there who aced a lot of their previous appointments. Do they go internal and promote up or do they go external again and scour the planet?”
Is it a surprise either that Andy Farrell, the new British and Irish Lions head coach, worked under Lancaster with England? Or Mike Catt, the new Waratahs attack coach, who also worked under Lancaster with England, before enhancing his career at Italy and Ireland?
Stuart Lancaster was influential in developing Mike Catt (2nd L) and Andy Farrell (2nd R) during their time with the England national side. (Photo by David Rogers – RFU/Getty Images)
Eddie Jones also likely benefitted from the investment Lancaster made with England, taking the side to 17 straight wins under his watch after being appointed in late 2015.
Although Schmidt won’t have a vote at the table, it’s likely the outgoing Wallabies coach would support Lancaster.
Having coached against Lancaster and seen his work first-hand recently during his final few years in the Irish system, much of Ireland’s attack stemmed from the former Leinster senior coach.
Lancaster, too, believes he’s a much better coach and leader since his high-profile exit from Pennyhill Park, which came after four successive second-placed finishes in the Six Nations.
“Failure is part of being a good leader,” he told an audience in Dublin during a 2019 lecture.
“The best leaders use the hurt from failure to drive them. I failed on the public stage, and it’s what made me a better coach.
“I’m not Joe Schmidt, I’m not Marty Johnson (former England captain and coach), I’m not Eddie Jones, I’m Stuart Lancaster and it’s important to be yourself. People want to see who you are, and pick up on that authenticity.”
For a governing body weighing up Schmidt’s replacement, it’s easy to understand why Lancaster is being strongly considered.
Christy Doranhttps://https://ift.tt/XuYpLIk: Two Leinster men have become the Wallabies coach – is a third about to replace Schmidt?
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