Stuart Lancaster appeared on Against the Head tonight where he fielded questions on Leinster's season, their academy prospects, and his four year reign as England coach.
"Divisive" wasn't a word that was often applied to him while he was England coach. Most accepted that he was one of the most agreeable personalities ever to take the role. But opinion was often divided on how good a job he did.
Taking over following the 2011 Rugby World Cup shenanigans, he was popular for a couple of seasons and appeared to be setting England on the road to happier times.
But he failed to win the Six Nations in his four years, finished runners-up every single year. In both 2013 and 2015, they were denied the title in agonising fashion.
Their hideous failure in the 2015 World Cup was all the worse for taking place in England and Lancaster departed in awful circumstances. There were shades of Eddie O'Sullivan there, with a dismal failure at the World Cup seeming to wipe out any or all happy memories.
His job was never going to survive that catastrophe and since then, England have embarked on a historic winning streak under Eddie Jones.
Joanne Cantell put it to him that Jones had injected a necessary "nastiness" into the England team following Lancaster's departure. We can only presume he was talking about the Wales game in the pool phase when he replied.
"We lost a game in the World Cup that we should have won and that changed everything," he said.
Stuart Lancaster dismisses the notions that his England were "a nice team"#rterugby pic.twitter.com/w4gy4hsWOQ
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) February 20, 2017
Early on, he was asked to explore his life with Leinster.
I'm loving it. It's been a great move for me. To come to such a talented team, a talented squad. My family have stayed in Leeds so it's commutable distance to get home and I'm enjoying coaching again.
Lancaster has experience of both English development systems and the Leinster development systems and asserts that the players coming out of Leinster are of a very high standard.
I can say with confidence, having worked in the English program, the quality of the players coming through the Leinster program is very, very high. To have so many internationals away
Now part of the Leinster set-up, former England coach Stuart Lancaster on what the Leinster academy are doing to ensure success pic.twitter.com/R9Ehw0dV3n
— RTÉ Rugby (@RTErugby) February 20, 2017
