So no more crass scheduling as occurred here, a scandalous conflation of the English season into the June Test window. But the England head coach’s more urgent priority is to avoid another daft imposition – having to pick in July a squad for November.
As, under the RFU’s agreement with the Premiership, Lancaster is due to announce his elite squad of 33 in precisely eight days’ time, he will have to postpone his holiday while he enters a negotiation this week to delay his selection for a good three months.
The burdens under which he has had to operate culminated in a third-Test thrashing at Waikato Stadium that took the All Blacks to their 17th straight victory, equalling a record jointly held by New Zealand and South African sides of the Sixties and Eighties respectively.
They will seek the outright record in Australia in August, when Lancaster sincerely hopes he will still have early season Premiership form to assess before formulating a squad. “For me, the later the better,” he said. “It’s a debate with Premier Rugby, who are basically supportive.
“They understand the agreement was set up in 2008 when it was very hard to crystal-ball-gaze how it would play out. Leading to World Cup year, I am asking to be allowed to make informed selections closer to the autumn internationals as opposed to nailing my colours to the mast now.”
Money is inevitably involved. Every elite-squad player brings an RFU dividend to his club, theoretically from July 1 if that is when selection is made. “In my ideal world we would have a squad in mid-October, then they backdate the money,” said Lancaster. “It’s not very hard.”
Thus we will soon see how serious the Premiership bureaucracy is about England’s home World Cup push. After the narrow misses in Auckland and Dunedin, the final Test suggested Lancaster and his players could use all the help they can get.
Article source: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-v-south-africa-team-7293184
Stuart Lancaster faces teething problems before November Tests
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