Monday 5 September 2016 15:17, UK
Will Greenwood feels Stuart Lancaster deserves some credit for blooding the young players who now form the core of Eddie Jones' England side.
Greenwood says Lancaster, who has been named as the new coach of Pro12 side Leinster, will have learned a lot from both his good and bad experiences in charge of the national side.
Lancaster was England head coach from 2011 to 2015, taking the reins after a World Cup littered with off-field controversies and leaving the role after a tournament four years later in which the team failed to make it past the pool stage.
But Sky Sports pundit Greenwood feels Lancaster's decision to introduce several young players, who have since excelled under Jones, should not be understated.
"There will be detractors out there who will simply point to the 2015 Rugby World Cup 2015 and the fact England did not get out of the group as hosts but that would be to look beyond the many huge positives he began to put into place," Greenwood told Sky Sports News HQ.
"Eddie Jones inherited a young squad of an average age of 24 or 25, all with about 35, 40 caps that Stuart Lancaster had the gumption to blood early.
"We can't forget he came to power when it seemed like no one else wanted the job. Everyone was out of contract, they said 'let's give it to the PE teacher, a safe pair of hands for one Six Nations' and by the end of that Six Nations he said 'you can't give the job to anyone else'."
Greenwood feels Lancaster's wealth of experience gleaned through five years in international rugby will nicely complement the relative inexperience of Leinster's Leo Cullen and Girvan Dempsey, who are both in their first coaching roles with the province.
"What you could absolutely say is he has learned so much from the good and the bad times," he said. "He has been around the world and studied and he is a sponge of a rugby man and he is a good man and Leinster currently with Leo Cullen and Girvan Dempsey there are also good men but relatively inexperienced at the highest level.
"They have had Graham Henry in there on a consultancy basis for a couple of weeks and it's clear Stuart Lancaster comes in there to plug that experience gap that two good men, and John Fogarty, are missing.
"I think it's great for both the club and the individual."
