{"id":11800,"date":"2012-06-24T11:50:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-24T09:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/rugby-south-africa-tour-will-benefit-england-says-lancaster\/"},"modified":"2012-06-24T11:50:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-24T09:50:48","slug":"rugby-south-africa-tour-will-benefit-england-says-lancaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/rugby-south-africa-tour-will-benefit-england-says-lancaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Rugby-South Africa tour will benefit England, says Lancaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Jason Humphries<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, June 24<\/span> (Reuters) – England
\nfailed to beat South Africa in their three June tests but the
\ntour will prove beneficial in the long term, coach Stuart
\nLancaster said on Sunday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

England lost the first two tests of the series before
\nclaiming a credible draw in the third, while the tourists also
\nmanaged two midweek wins against South Africa Barbarians teams.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Lancaster said the extended tour had proved invaluable as he
\ncontinues to build his team. He was only appointed as full time
\ncoach in March after having been in charge during England’s Six
\nNations campaign on an interim basis.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s been a fantastic opportunity for us to take a wider
\ngroup of players and work with them and, for me, that has been
\nthe real benefit of the tour,” Lancaster told reporters in Port
\nElizabeth.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“I was able to get a real good understanding of the
\nstrengths and weaknesses and the areas we need to work on going
\nforward.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“At this point we should, as a team, be getting to the point
\nwhere we are competitive and wining every game. That has to be
\nour mindset.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have now got a team of young players and experienced
\nplayers coming through together in an environment that they
\nenjoy, where the culture is strong. I think it augers well for
\nthe future,” he added.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Rugby Football Union (RFU) Chief Executive Ian Ritchie
\nechoed Lancaster’s sentiments about the positives that could be
\ntaken from the tour of South Africa but said ultimately the tour
\nwould be judged on the results.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“We want to win every game and we look at what happened on
\nthe tour on that basis. That said, I think we achieved a lot.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“To come here and get a draw, together with the overall
\nperformance over the three tests, history proves how difficult
\nit is to come here and win. But in all three tests we were
\ncompetitive and we were committed,” said Ritchie.<\/p>\n

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jason Humphries PORT ELIZABETH, South Africa, June 24 (Reuters) – England failed to beat South Africa in their three June tests but the tour will prove beneficial in the long term, coach Stuart Lancaster said on Sunday. England lost the first two tests of the series before claiming a credible draw in the third, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11800","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11800\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}