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Leinster Senior Coach Stuart Lancaster has welcomed the possible addition of South African teams to the Guinness Pro14.
The province will return to national action for the start of a new season less than two weeks after their Heineken Champions Cup exit against the Saracens when they face Dragons on RDS on Friday night.
The first 11 rounds of the Pro14 will feature European teams only due to travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak, and South African starting Cheetahs will not be able to participate in the 2020-21 competition until January as a result and the South Kings have entered the administration.
But organizers have been in talks to bring in more South African franchises starting in 2021.
Lancaster said he’s very open to that prospect.
“I think there is room for development in Pro14 and there is talk at the moment of potentially more South African teams coming in. I think that would be positive personally,” he said.
“I think that would add to the challenge, which would be a good thing and without going too far into the evolution of club rugby around the world, I think it would be a really good thing for us.”
Amid a challenging financial outlook for rugby in the wake of the pandemic, he added that Leinster’s model, based primarily on the development of local players, would remain key despite the push to stay competitive with leading teams on the continent.
“That’s the Leinster model and I think it’s a really good model. It builds longevity and long-term sustainability,” he said.
“You look at the teams that have won European Cups, that maybe they were ‘buying clubs’, take a Toulon as an example, they have their sunny days and their years.
“But is it sustainable? And I look at Exeter as an example and at Toulouse now, which is building a local team with one or two players from outside and I think that’s the model that Leinster has and should follow, particularly on the road.” . in which the game will be challenged for the next 12, 18 or 24 months with the financial challenges that teams will face.
“Having a homegrown team, I think, is a real advantage.”
One challenge to overcome at the end of next season is how to close the power play gap. As highlighted at RTÉ Rugby last week after the loss to the Saracens, that facet was also evident in Ireland’s most recent Six Nations clashes with England.
But Lancaster feels it has more nuance than just a matter of power differences.
“It’s probably too simplistic to say that,” said the former England manager.
“It wasn’t that long ago that Ireland won Grand Slams and we won the European Cup.
“Yes, we have lost twice to the Saracens and Ireland have lost twice to England. I think the [2019 Champions Cup final] in Newcastle it was actually nip and tuck.
“This game was different [last weekend]. In the four years I’ve been at Leinster, I haven’t seen us concede that many scrum penalties in any match.
“I don’t worry about things like that because I know we can fix those things technically. Maybe one or two things didn’t turn out the way we wanted that we thought we should have, but that’s rugby.
“But I think going to the Ireland games and the England games right around the corner, Ireland has more than enough in their arsenal to challenge England. It was probably more the kicking game in the last Ireland-England game than it resulted in England getting that victory.
“But the reality is, whether you play the Saracens or England or the great teams in Europe, you have to do the fundamentals really well and that day, we didn’t do well enough.”
He also confirmed that Irish prop Tadhg Furlong will not be available against Dragons, but that the calf injury he suffered shortly after recovering from a back problem “is not important.” He should be back in time for Ireland’s Six Nations and Fall Nations Cup commitments starting next month.
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