Racing 92 boss Lancaster receives bizarre attack from ex-France wing

Former France winger Jean-Baptiste Lafond has claimed Racing 92 head coach Stuart Lancaster would make a “clown who had just won the lottery cry” in a bizarre diatribe after the latest round of Top 14 action.

In response to Racing’s 32-12 loss to Toulouse on Saturday in the Top 14, Lafond suggested Lancaster is too serious to lead the Parisian outfit in his video column for Eurosport. 

The former England boss arrived at Racing at the beginning of the season following seven hugely successful years with Leinster. His tenure with Racing has been solid so far, if unspectacular, with the side sitting in fourth place in the Top 14.

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But the visitors could not compete with Toulouse in the second half at the Stade Ernest-Wallon on Saturday, partly down to a 35-minute cameo from Antoine Dupont.

Lancaster’s side were also booted out of the Investec Champions Cup by Toulouse in a similarly dominant display at the beginning of the month, which has led to Lafond questioning the future of the current Racing coaching team.

“A final half-surprise is Racing’s big defeat in Toulouse,” Lafond said (translated by Google).

“They had arrived with ambitions to prepare for the end of the season, and what a disappointment! Racing 92 were still in the match at half-time but after that, everything went haywire.

“Kinkghorn and Dupont came into play, it went too quickly. Toulouse had all the ball and it’s very hard to defend against these kinds of teams.

“It’s a slap in the face! What to do against such intensity and such a passing game? Nothing! Racing had moved to thwart Toulouse, Racing left empty-handed.

“There is a problem with the staff,” he continued.

“At coach Lancaster’s level. Coming from the rain and the cold, I think that a coach must instil a climate, an atmosphere, an atmosphere, and that is not the case.

“He doesn’t exude the joy of living and I don’t even think I would be surprised if there were changes. This coach would make a clown who had just won the lottery cry and that’s the problem.

“Is this coach capable of stopping the bus when it is not planned, to enter a bar after a victory or a defeat? I’m not sure of it! I’m not sure that such a serious coach can lead a team to victory.”