England’s Football Association should follow the lead of their country’s rugby counterparts by equipping young players with leadership skills, according to former England rugby coach Stuart Lancaster. “A lot of the challenges in football are similar
to the challenges in rugby,” Lancaster told The Times. Lack of leadership in a young squad was one factor identified by critics for the humiliating round of 16 exit from the 2016 European Championship at the hands of Iceland last week.
Lancaster, who has been invited to join an Football Association advisory panel made up of coaches from other sports, is all too familiar with that kind of humiliation after his side exited its own World Cup at the pool stage last year. He was, however, a driving force behind the England player development scheme which has produced the junior sides that have won the world under-20 championship three times in the last four years.
This story first appeared in the blog, The Sport Intern. The editor is Karl-Heinz Huba of Lorsch, Germany. He can be reached at ISMG@aol.com. The article is reprinted here with permission of Huba.