Stuart Lancaster: Top South African franchises would 'change dynamic' of PRO14

DO IT BETTER: Caelan Doris goes high during Leinster squad training at UCD in Dublin. Senior coach Stuart Lancaster says: ‘the Leinster model is the one that I would want, personally, where you have homegrown talent coming through,’ ahead of the season opener to Dragons this Friday evening at the RDS. Picture: Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

Stuart Lancaster says the addition of South Africa’s biggest franchises to the Guinness PRO14 could change the dynamic of a tournament which has undergone vast and regular amounts of change in its short history.

Competition organisers have already confirmed that talks are ongoing with the South African union with a view to bringing in extra teams after the Southern Kings went into voluntary liquidation and the Cheetahs were forced to sit on the sidelines for now due to Covid-19.

The 2020/21 league will get underway this weekend without any South African representation envisaged until at least 2021 but the possible inclusion of the Bulls, Sharks, Stormers and Lions — most likely at the expense of the Cheetahs — would clearly add quality to the scene.

“Without getting into the whole global club game debate, if the South African teams were added to the PRO14 or PRO16 or whatever I think that would be a good thing, personally,” said Lancaster, Leinster’s senior coach.

“It would change the dynamic within the league and, for a club like Leinster, they’re exactly the type of games that we’d want to be playing in, against the Stormers, the Bulls, the Sharks, the Lions etc, etc, etc. That would be a really positive step if that came about.”

Lancaster offered that observation when asked if the current standards in the PRO14 were an issue in Leinster falling flat against Saracens in the quarter-finals of Europe earlier this month. That was certainly one theory that gained ground in the aftermath.

The irony is, of course, that Leinster’s ability to mix and match their personnel through the PRO14 has long been held aloft as a reason why they could prosper so much in Europe given the rest it afford their top players and the exposure it guaranteed the next generation.

“The top end of the PRO14 is more than competitive at the highest levels and our PRO14 challenge comes on the back of, you know, we won all the games (last season) and we often had to do it without the internationals. This year it’s going to be even more true.”

Ireland’s packed schedule from October through to early December will test even Leinster’s vaunted strength-in-depth and they are already facing the prospect of being without Tadhg Furlong for another period of time.

The tighthead hasn’t featured for the province since rugby’s restart due to a back injury and Leinster now say that he will miss another number of weeks with a minor calf problem. Not good news with the delayed Six Nations game against Italy just four weeks away. Lancaster says there is no reason why he could not be ready then.

“I don’t think there is a definitive number (of weeks), we’re not talking a major calf tear at all. I don’t think he’s out of the equation at all. The one thing I think Tadhg would want before playing against Italy is a game, the only game he’s going to get is a game for Leinster ideally.

“So I think that’s the goal really. I’m pretty certain he will be up and running by that time. But if Ireland is sufficiently confident to put him without a game, I guess, it remains to be seen. I guess it is the options they have available.”

Dan Leavy is another whose return to the park has been put back again. The official line remains that the flanker’s training load is being managed, as it has been for a number of weeks now, while Dave Kearney and Adam Byrne are others on the unavailable list this week.

Leinster do have the option of using Robbie Henshaw, who has been passed fit, at home to Dragons at an empty RDS this Friday evening in their season opener.

It’s not the most enticing of prospects for the average onlooker.

For the home team it will be, if nothing else, a chance to wash some of the pain of that Saracens defeat from the system and one which Lancaster insists was down to an inability to perform some of the game’s fundamentals at a high enough standard.

The scrum was obviously chief among those.

It was these micro issues rather than the macro explanations proffered by others that Lancaster put forward and he was equally keen to stress the positives as the four-time European champions look to mount another dual assault on silverware.

He highlighted how Leinster have been the leading try scorers in the pool stages this last four years and how a team that has blooded plenty of promising youth in recent times will benefit from that big-game experience and the pain of the defeat to Mark McCall’s side.

“I just think we are in a really good place,” he said, pointing out that they had gone 25 games without a loss until earlier this month and then adding that the damage inflicted on their scrum against Sarries was an outlier in the four years he has spent in Dublin.

There will be no sea change. No reflexive response to the perceived notion that Leinster and Ireland are being habitually outmuscled by Saracens and England. The plan is to stick rather than twist, to do what they have always done but better.

“If it was a common trend and it was always happening week in week out I would be concerned for sure, but Leinster have got to be Leinster. We’re not going to go out and sign five or six overseas players.

“In the modern climate anyway, with the way that finances are being dictated this next 12, 24 months, the Leinster model is the one that I would want, personally, where you have homegrown talent coming through.

“You get your Toulons who had a great run, and even Saracens you could argue have had a great run but they are in the Championship.”