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Lancaster interview

I don't think people really went after Burgess straight away. People questioned his inclusion as he clearly had not earned it and it was purely by his reputation in a different league. He also didn't get flak for the failings. What he DID get flak for was buggering off to league again after 1 bad moment. That just stank of self-serving mercenary who was always ready to pack things up if it didn't go his way. Yeah the press unfairly hyped him, yes he got chucked in when he shouldn't have but ultimately he showed real mental frailty just giving up when he discovered he wasn't going to be a world beater in his position after 8 games... Especially as a Bath fan I was royally ****** off that he had such little regard for his contractual obligations, you don't just sign huge contracts like that and walk from it. Doubly annoyed because we lost a good 6 because of his signing and ended the year losing both.

As for Lancaster, great guy and good at getting youth through but lacks conviction. He's too easily swayed by assertive underlings, like how Farrell snr swayed him to abandon everything that worked during the 6N in favour of playing ultra conservative rugby with his favourite Sarries players looking to defend, defend defend whilst completely neglecting the breakdown. Lancaster should have been tough enough to remove players who weren't performing earlier (Ashton, Barritt, Goode) and then had the nerve to stick with ones who were performing but may have had 1 or 2 off days. A few off days is ok, over a year of consistantly not performing is not. Lancaster would keep the consistantly not performing and drop the people with the odd bad day.

I think his future lies in age grade rugby, I would not be opposed to having him coaching in the U20's as I do believe he recognised the young players who had talent quite well.
 

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