the times | Friday May 27 2022 2GM 63
Rugby unionSport
Emma Raducanu’s coaching set-up
has been described as “strange” by a
player who shares his coach with her.
Joe Salisbury, the Briton ranked
world No 1 in doubles, suggested
yesterday that the agreement that
means the LTA’s technical consultant,
Louis Cayer, advises Raducanu, 19,
and doubles players meant Raducanu
would not be Cayer’s priority.
“Louis said the doubles guys are his
priority,” Salisbury said. “It’s a bit of a
TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER MARC ASPLANDLewis Hamilton will face no disciplina-
ry action this weekend in Monaco
if he chooses to race with his
nose stud in, despite the ex-
piry of an exemption that
allowed him to compete
while wearing jewellery.
The FIA, the sport’s
governing body, has cho-
sen to enforce a long-
standing regulation that
forbids drivers from wear-
ing jewellery when behind the
wheel. After discussions in Miami
at the start of the month, Hamilton, 37,
agreed to remove his earrings but said
he needed professional help to take out
his nose ring. The seven-times world
champion was given a two-race exemp-
tion which covered Miami and Spain.
worked. The RFU maintains it was
aware of Jones’s outside business and
coaching interests when they recruited
him in late 2015, although The Times
has been told otherwise.
The need for a director of rugby to sit
above the England head coach has been
a bone of contention at the RFU for
almost two decades. It was the root
cause of an extraordinary civil war that
erupted at Twickenham in early 2011.
In the aftermath, the notion of a
director of rugby sitting at the top of the
structure was scrapped. Stuart Lancas-
ter, who was head coach between 2012
and 2015, and Jones were both directly
recruited by and answerable to the
RFU chief executive.
Sweeney, who awarded Jones a con-
tract extension through to the 2023
World Cup, has also appointed an ano-
nymous panel of experts to provide
“insight and support” to the head coach.Head coach candidates ‘need clarity’
Yet Sir Clive Woodward, who led
England to victory in the World Cup in
2003, has long argued that the RFU
needs a director of rugby to oversee the
recruitment and performance of the
England head coach. “If I were CEO of
the RFU, I would employ a director of
rugby who would take all this responsi-
bility off me,” Woodward said after the
Six Nations. “A director of rugby who is
qualified to talk about the England
coaching position, how you go about
selecting it and also to recommend to
me and the board who that should be.”
Jones is adamant that the England
head coach requires autonomy to suc-
ceed and not a director of rugby over-
seeing his work. He already consults
with a network of high-performance
and leadership advisers, most of whom
are outside the RFU.
Of Blackett’s recommendation in
2018, Jones said: “It’s the most faulty
argument I’ve ever heard. Whether you
win or you lose, who do you come andsee? The head coach. At the end of the
day, whether the team wins or loses, the
responsibility is mine.”
Project Everest is being run by Nigel
Redman, the former England inter-
national who joined the RFU as head of
team performance from British Swim-
ming in February, after nine years out
of the sport.
Establishing the right structure and
job description for Jones’s successor is
critical and would be shaped around
the strengths of the individuals identi-
fied by the RFU. But potential candi-
dates need clarity. Rob Baxter, the Exet-
er Chiefs director of rugby and one of
the favourites to succeed Jones, said he
needed to understand what the role
entailed before declaring an interest.
“Our coach succession planning
process is looking at the attributes,
skills, experience and support needed
at each stage. There is no intention to
change the reporting structure of head
coaches,” O’Shea said.From an England failure to
Leinster’s most prized asset
“Keep your hands off him,” warns Brian
O’Driscoll when asked about Stuart
Lancaster — the Englishman at the
heart of Leinster’s dominance.
Such is the success of the Irish prov-
ince that it is little wonder that Ireland’s
greatest player cannot believe that
Lancaster is theirs — however stark the
contrast between the coach of today
and the one who led England’s disas-
trous 2015 World Cup campaign.
The 52-year-old Leinster senior
coach, who was so down and out after
that group-stage exit seven years ago, is
on the eve of another final — the
Heineken Champions Cup against
La Rochelle.
They are the favourites for the game
in Marseille tomorrow and should they
win, it will be their fifth European Cup
title. A fifth consecutive league crown is
expected to follow next month.
“Leinster showed big faith in him
[when he joined in 2016] and he’s
rewarded them significantly in what
he’s delivered,” says O’Driscoll, who
won three European Cups and four
league titles himself with Leinster
before retiring in 2014.
By his own admission Lancaster spun
too many plates with England, worried
about too much away from the training
field, but now sits in his comfort zone as
a hands-on senior coach at Leinster
obsessed with tactical nuances, session
design and player development.
Lancaster has Leo Cullen as lieuten-
ant and head coach, but largely runs
day-to-day training.
Load is low, but intensity high —
especially on “Stu-esday” midweek
sessions that Lancaster says are
“mentally, emotionally and physically
challenging”. Each week the drills alter,
so players do not grow stale.
Leinster run three sides in sessions,
all swapping in to face each other so
that rising youngsters are afforded the
same number of repetitions as the stars.
They do that as Leinster lose more
players to international duty thanpractically any other club in the world,
with 17 to 20 away with Ireland during
the Six Nations and autumn periods.
While the Test players are away
Lancaster keeps a diary of all the
tweaks made to calls and the wider
game plan so that they can be relayed to
them on their return, allowing them to
reintegrate quickly.
One of those Test players is Josh van
der Flier. The flanker raves about
Lancaster, who got him to demand the
ball more in attack this season, reaping
fantastic results.
“He’s been brilliant,” Van der Flier
says. “Anyone who has played under
Stuart has found he’s made them better.
“The work he puts in is unbelievable.
He’s in all hours watching video, getting
to know the opposition. We’re very
lucky. He’s been integral to it all and an
incredible asset to me.”
This season, Leinster have used 60
players in 26 matches, losing
five — and their depth was
reaffirmed last Saturday
in their 35-25 victory
over Munster with a
side devoid of first-
team players.
“He’s cutting edge
in his coaching,”
O’Driscoll says.
“You’re finding lots of
teams are doing some-
thing similar but he’s
doing it the best.
“The players he has at his
disposal are very skilful and able
to deliver it. Ireland have adopted
something similar in a game plan — it’s
one thing creating that shape but
getting everyone to understand their
role in that shape is the next thing, and
creating space where there doesn’t
appear to be any.
“That’s from the small details of
angles of running, lines of running,
keeping yourself in the game when
things have broken down a fraction —
there are small little nuances that Lein-
ster are doing better than anyone else.
“That comes from coaching, from
telling players the different situations
they’ll find themselves in and how they
can adapt. Lancaster has been a huge
portion of Leinster’s success in the last
six years.”
Lancaster, inset, has created a system
in which players are not assigned set
roles in attack, but rather asked to beadaptable and slot into the wider
system where they can.
For example, if the prop Tadhg
Furlong is not the man available to give
those deft late passes on the gainline,
then his sidekick, Andrew Porter, or the
flankers Van der Flier and Caelen Doris
or anyone else can.
That style was honed during lock-
down two years ago when Lancaster
used his contacts in New Zealand to
create a four-week virtual analysis
programme with the Crusaders.
As Lancaster revealed to the BBC in a
podcast last month, Leinster presented
on their northern hemisphere defence
in the first week, then the Crusaders
spoke of their evolving attack in week
two and in the final fortnight both sides
revealed their analysis of how they
would prepare to play each other.
Tomorrow, the crux of Leinster’s
game plan will be creating as many
rucks as possible that last less
than three seconds against
a physical La Rochelle
team. Should they suc-
ceed in doing that, the
Irish side should be
able to swarm all
over them.
Vital to the deliv-
ery of this plan is the
fly half and auxiliary
coach on the field,
Johnny Sexton. The
36-year-old is a Lancaster
acolyte. Having received
glowing references from Owen
and Andy Farrell on Lancaster, he
texted him directly in 2016 asking if he
would join Leinster. After the 2018
Champions Cup victory over Racing
92, Sexton called him “special”. Since
dovetailing, Lancaster has motivated
Sexton in the autumn of his career by
sending him clips and analysis of Tom
Brady, the supreme 44-year-old NFL
quarterback, as food for thought.
Leinster actually think they have
underachieved in Europe — with it
being four years since their most recent
title — but they are primed to rise to the
continent’s summit again tomorrow.
And with the house of Lancaster so
robustly rebuilt, it is no surprise Irish
greats want him all to themselves.
6 The European Champions Cup final
between Leinster and La Rochelle is on
BT Sport 2 tomorrow at 4pm. Find out
more on how to watch at bt.com/sportCutting-edge plans of
Stuart Lancaster have
led province to the cusp
of a fifth European title,
Will Kelleher writes
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andAndy FarrellIrina-Camelia Begu was lucky to
escape disqualification from her
second-round match when the
31-year-old Romanian aggressively
bounced her racket into the stands
and left a child in tears.
After going 2-0 down in the
deciding set against Ekaterina
Alexandrova, Begu walked towards
her courtside bench and threw her
racket against the surface. It
bounced on its edge and flew
towards spectators, just missing a
boy who was so scared he cried.
Begu apologised to the child
before being warned by the umpire
for unsporting conduct. She
refocused to battle back for a 6-7 (3-
7), 6-3, 6-4 win and posed for
photographs with the family
afterwards. “It’s an embarrassing
moment,” Begu said. “I just want to
apologise. I feel really bad.”Racket abuse has
child in tears
inside today
Bernie Ecclestone arrested in Brazil for
taking a pistol on a plane in his luggage
News, page 7Doubles No 1: It’s strange sharing coach with Raducanu
strange situation that he has got with
Emma [who split with her coach in
April] where he’s helping her.”
“Louis told us at the very start, the
doubles guys will get priority,” Neal
Skupski, another British doubles
specialist, said.
In addition to Cayer, Raducanu is
considering using Jamie Delgado,
who coached Andy Murray for six
years, as a consultant during the grass
court season.Hamilton clear to race with
nose stud in as talks drag on
Rebecca Clancy However, The Times understands
that the drivers met with the president
of the FIA medical commission in Bar-
celona last weekend regarding the
issue. Those talks are under-
stood to be continuing this
weekend in Monaco and
will include the race di-
rectors. Therefore it has
been decided that no
action will be taken
against a driver who
wears jewellery while driv-
ing in Monaco. Hamilton
arrived at the track on Friday
with his nose piercing still in.
his
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