Our Great Coach on this episode is Stuart Lancaster.

Stuart played Rugby for Leeds and was the first player to reach 100 games for the club. He transitioned into coaching in 2000 initially leading youth teams until he was appointed Head Coach of Leeds in 2007. From there he moved into coaching ngland teams before being appointed England Head coach in 2011. He took the team to the Rugby World Cup in 2015 where they were unfortunately eliminated in the group stage.

Stuart now coaches for Leinster Rugby in Dublin, where he has had great success winning the European Champions Cup in 2018, and the Pro 14 in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021; and the Celtic Cup in 2019 and 2020.

Stuart is a coach with a deep passion for his craft. He is driven to learn and develop, and has visited some of the worlds great sporting and leadership organisations in a bid to share his knowledge and acquire theirs.

Stuart has experienced some wonderful highs and disappointing lows in his career and this also infuses his story with a healthy dose of humility and unflinching honesty. His philosophy is player centered, and focuses on balancing teaching with in the moment feedback, and through this he develops strong relationships with his players and the staff around him.

The key parts of the interview that connected with me were

• How the great coaches have the capacity to pick the right tool out of the bag at the right time, alongside technical excellence, integrity and a good dose of honesty.
• How he first deals with disruptive influences within a team by trying to lift their self awareness, through gathering feedback from across the team and presenting it to the athlete.
• The importance of humility in the teams culture.

And wanting to leaving a legacy where his focus on development has been an inspiration to others, and helped them go on to become coaches.

If you would like to send us any feedback or if you know a great coach, who has a unique story to share, then we would love to hear from you, please contact us at paul@thegreatcoachespodcast.com or contact us through our website thegreatcoachespodcast.com

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