In fact, there will be a before and after the 2023 World Cup in Racing, a club of rare stability since it will have consumed only two chiefdoms between 2007 and 2023: Pierre Berbizier and then the Travers-Labit duo, which became lonely when the second left for the France team
. Next season, Laurent Travers, manager of Ciel et Blanc since his arrival from Castres in 2013, will step down from this position. He will be replaced by the English Stuart Lancaster (52), former coach of the XV de la Rose between 2011 and 2015, who has since become, in Leinster, the thinker of the attacking game of the province of Dublin and the armed wing of Leo Cullen.
Lancaster knows where he steps According to our information, Lancaster signed his contract on Thursday. By attracting such a size, recognized by his peers as one of the best technicians in Europe, Racing marks the beginning of a new era. Until now, Jacky Lorenzetti had never entrusted the keys to Le Plessis to an English speaker. But he had expressed, in recent months, his desire, why not, to open himself to this possibility.“We do not prohibit anything about the schedule, or about nationality”
, the president told us last spring. Lancaster knows where he steps. In 2018 he came to spend three days at Racing, as an accelerated observation internship. The first lines of the page that will become Racing date back several months. last April, The team He revealed that Thibault Giroud, current director of performance for the Fifteen de France, would join Racing immediately after the World Cup, in a similar role. We also report the return of Dr. Sylvain Blanchard to oversee the entire medical sector. Former OM doctor, he left Racing to work at AS Monaco and has just reopened his practice at Racing.“We did not build for three years”
Lorenzetti insisted last spring.
Contepomi in his wake?
Stuart Lancaster might not arrive in Hauts-de-Seine with empty suitcases. His former teammate on the Leinster bench, Felipe Contepomi, who went five months to train the Argentine team, would be part of the Englishman’s plans (after the World Cup), as one or two more assistants. But nothing has been decided on these issues yet. Nor is there evidence that Johnny Sexton is Lancaster’s successor in Leinster, although the Irish press evokes this hypothesis.
On the effective side, there will be no shortage of chips to move on to the post World Cup 2023. The main one will undoubtedly revolve around the position of number 10, if it is confirmed that Finn Russell will not go beyond his contract, which ends in June. . Champion of France in 2016, triple finalist in the European Cup (2016, 2018, 2020), Laurent Travers does not let himself be carried away by the Racing door. He was never in doubt. For him, Lorenzetti’s loyalty has never been found wanting. Together, they make up the longest-serving president-manager pair in the Top 14 landscape. Jacky Lorenzetti has always had a clear vision of his for the future:
“It is Laurent who will choose his successor. And you don’t have to be a great cleric to understand that in the near future Laurent will be the Chairman of our Board of Directors, while I will be the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, responsible for setting the main strategic directions. »