Leo Cullen keen to keep Stuart Lancaster on board

Leo Cullen is hoping that Stuart Lancaster continues to ignore the whispers connecting him to vacant posts in the Aviva Premiership, with Northampton Saints the latest role to be painted as a good fit for the former England head coach.

The Saints are in the market for a new boss after Jim Mallinder’s ten-year stint as Director of Rugby was terminated by the midlands club earlier this week.

Tenth in the table and winless in Europe, Lancaster’s name has been prominent in the ‘who’s next?’ columns.

“He seems pretty happy and we’re pretty happy with Stuart as well,” said Cullen.

“He has come in and added a huge amount, not just in the coaching part, because there are so many other parts to it as well.

“Hopefully he will be part of the group moving forward.”

The addition of James Lowe to the playing roster is a more curious affair.

The highly-rated Kiwi wing made an electric start to his Leinster career with a pair of tries on debut away to Benetton at the start of the month but the club then opted against registering him in time for last week’s trip to Exeter.

Rhys Ruddock’s injury, suffered in that Sandy Park game, subsequently freed up a space but Lowe’s name was again absent yesterday when Cullen named his squad of 23 for the second meeting with the Chiefs, in Dublin.

Leinster’s issue is that, under rule, they can only field two players from Australia and New Zealand in any European match panel and ex-Wallaby Scott Fardy and New Zealand scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park have both been given the nod.

Cullen admitted yesterday that it is a “dilemma”.

“You have to work back,” he explained. “Jamison was here all last season and then we signed James and then we were in the market for another player and Scott became available.

“So it’s not the ideal scenario, we would freely admit that, but we had the opportunity to sign Scott after those other two guys came in.

“There is so much changing of teams that you need depth in all areas.”

Meanwhile, Tadhg Furlong has signed a central IRFU contract that will keep him at Leinster through to June of 2021. The Ireland and Lions tighthead has, as expected, been promoted from his existing provincial deal.