Stuart Lancaster offers serious hope for a return to Irish rugby

This would be great for rugby in Ireland.

The Englishman was at Leinster from 2016-2023 as a Senior coach, but he was effectively performing the head coach duties.

While Leinster lost three finals during his tenure, they did win in 2018 and played a magnificent brand of rugby throughout his time at the province.

With the club's attack having regressed under his replacement, Jacques Nienaber, in favour of a focus on aggressive defence, many fans would welcome the return of Lancaster.

Speaking on Off the Ball, Lancaster, who is currently out of a job having left Racing in February, said: "Oh God, we miss Ireland. I wouldn't rule out coming back, at all."

And if it wasn't a return to Leinster, he would be a serious coup for any of the other provinces or even the national side.

After failing in his bid to replace Joe Schmidt as head coach of Australia, Lancaster recently said: “I wouldn’t say no if I had to go back to France. I probably wouldn’t go back as a No1, I’d go under a French No1 probably.

"I can definitely go back in an organisation that was motivated and can see potential. I don’t think with the next job but I wouldn’t say no to that,” he continued.

“The southern hemisphere is always an attraction, but the Australia thing isn’t going to happen. New Zealand tend not to appoint coaches from outside New Zealand.

"There might be one or two chances to build relationships in South Africa, which I would be keen to explore and obviously the northern hemisphere, there is club and international jobs coming up, but again it goes down to fit, they have got to want you and you have got to want to go."