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Warren Gatland says Stuart Lancaster could be in contention for Lions coach role

Warren Gatland (L) the British and Irish Lions head coach talks to England head coach Stuart Lancaster during the England training session held at St Georges Park on February 13, 2013 - GETTY IMAGES
Warren Gatland (L) the British and Irish Lions head coach talks to England head coach Stuart Lancaster during the England training session held at St Georges Park on February 13, 2013 - GETTY IMAGES

Warren Gatland will start the process of selecting his backroom team for the 2021 British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa at the end of this month and has suggested that former England head coach Stuart Lancaster could be in contention.

Speaking to Will Greenwood’s Rugby Podcast, the 56-year-old revealed that he had not yet “committed to anyone”. However, he plans to travel from New Zealand to the United Kingdom and Ireland to meet the respective chief executives of the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh unions over the coming weeks.

Those discussions will determine the availability of coaches affiliated to national teams, but Gatland stressed that they would only be a “starting point” and that those employed by club and provincial sides could also be included.

In 2017, for the Lions’ tour to New Zealand, Gatland brought Steve Borthwick from England as forwards coach. Borthwick joined defence coach Andy Farrell of Ireland, scrum coach Graham Rowntree from Harlequins and attack coach Rob Howley and kicking coach Neil Jenkins from Wales. That quartet had all been on the tour to Australia four years previously.

Gatland, who is enduring a difficult Super Rugby Aotearoa campaign with the Chiefs that has yielded seven losses from seven matches thus far, explained that he has found some degree of “continuity” to be helpful in bringing players up to speed.

“One of the things that I have found really important is that, yes, you want to bring some new faces and new voices in,” he said, leaning on his experience of three tours since the 2009 trip to South Africa. “But you don’t want a clean sweep.”

With that in mind, familiar faces are likely to help him in his goal to mastermind a series win over the world champion Springboks. Other figures will be considered, though.

Rugby Nerd REFERRAL (article)
Rugby Nerd REFERRAL (article)

“The first step is to get clarity from unions and bosses and, potentially, club CEOs about who is available,” Gatland added.

“If you weren’t picking someone from an international set-up and you were looking at someone from a club set-up, then you’ve got to look at their availability in that timing of the year.

“Have they got games on? [Because] then you’ve got [Lions] selection meetings. There are a huge number of things to consider. Hopefully in the next couple of months, we’ll be able to put all that together.”

Lancaster has thrived with Leinster after joining the Irish province as senior coach, alongside existing head coach Leo Cullen, just under a year after England’s ignominious pool-stage exit at Rugby World Cup 2015.

Leinster won the Pro 14 and European Champions Cup double in 2018, adding the former title in 2019 and reaching the final of the latter competition, where they were beaten 20-10 by Saracens.

When the 2019-20 season was halted by the Covid-19 pandemic, their first-team had won 19 out of 19 matches in the Pro 14 and Champions Cup.

Stuart Lancaster, the Leinster senior coach looks on prior to the Champions Cup Semi Final match between Leinster Rugby and Toulouse  - GETTY IMAGES
Stuart Lancaster, the Leinster senior coach looks on prior to the Champions Cup Semi Final match between Leinster Rugby and Toulouse - GETTY IMAGES

Over his four years in Ireland, players such as Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton have lavished praise on Lancaster, who has worked on both attack and defence. Gatland, whose Wales team beat England 28-25 at Twickenham in 2015, followed suit.

“I think you have to take your hat off to Stuart,” Gatland said. “When he finished with England, he went away and did some professional development, went around and looked at other sports.

“Then he took this role with Leinster and there are definitely a lot of things that he will have learned from that experience, as we all do in a little bit of adversity.

“There is no doubt about what he has done and the impact he has had in his time with Leinster. He’d say that he has definitely improved as a coach and I have a huge amount of respect for him.

“We met before the last tour [in 2017] and he spoke to me about his opinions on thee Leinster players and the Irish players, giving me an insight into them.

“I appreciated that and he is one person that I have had a couple of conversations with [in the past] but there are a number of other people that I’ll be looking at and talking to.”