Stuart Lancaster has been appointed England Rugby Coach following a period as caretaker. Stuart was able to restore the shattered morale, reinstate reputation, and win back disillusioned English rugby fans during the short period entrusted to him. The success of Lancaster was his ability to get together three different groups of players to work in one direction. Entrusted with three groups, his job was to be the engine that would take England forward. The much experienced older players--settled in their ways--were one group.

The second group was with limited international exposure. The third were made of new talent with no international playing experience. .He had to get them set for the RBS six nations within a very short period. This requires good man management which was done well. The success was in the management of people with diverse background and motivating high performance. England is now looking towards the 2015 World Cup and beyond, and the coach was to be appointed. Lancaster replaced Martin Johnson, who resigned after the dismal performance at the last world cup played in New Zealand.

Nick Mallet, a contender, had better credentials taking South Africa to the world cup semis and guiding Italy to win key games at the six nations. The main reason Lancaster got the nod was his ability to gel the team within a short period, and be number two in the RBS 6 Nations. He brought to the interview a proven background of handling the LIONS, which was hard to counter.

On the other hand dumping Mallet for Lancaster may have sent wrong signals. A hard decision that had to be taken; taken judiciously with the game in mind and not sitting on nuances to cover yourself.

The task ahead with over 30 games before the next world cup gives the space and opportunity for the new coach to work towards the 2015 world cup. The uncertainty continues as Saracens seem to be in no hurry to release Andy Farrel, who is to be part of the team with Graham Rowntree.

The issues of release from club to national are not uncommon, and cannot be seen as a happening that is unique to Sri Lanka. The contracts and associated fees as well as expectations play a role in the process. Farrel, if released, will help England but would affect Saracens who planned their future. Saracens released Farrel during the trouble-ridden times but will that continue to the future?
In Sri Lanka we are on the eve of the Asian 5 Nations Division 1 to be played in Manila next week. Sri Lanka meets Singapore in the first match to be played on the 15th. Phil Greening, the former English hooker, has a task ahead to take rugby back to its track in the pursuit of being among the giants in Asia.
The task at hand is not a road without bumps as there was only a short time space with the appointment of the national coach and the championship. The fact that some players have opted to stay away, I am certain did not make things easy.

As England looks at the 2015 World Cup, Sri Lanka too needs to plan ahead and work to achieve them than being disappointed about players not preferring to be available for national duty. What faces Phil is similar to what Lancaster would have faced. Various informal groups exist within the team and have to be bond to a win situation. Similar to the decision taken by England in the appointment of a coach, Sri Lanka faced an issue of appointment. The decision taken has to be affected for long term benefit and has to be taken beyond the term of Asanga Seneviratne. Similarly, the decision to not consider players who did not sign contracts has to be taken up and carried forward. These in turn may not make all others love the administration, and the next time around it may be that somebody will promote “our man”. We all know of the disastrous consequences that followed. Yet you cannot postpone or shy away from decisions that may not make you the most popular.

Group Dynamics is about the interactions that influence the attitudes and behaviour of people when they are grouped with others through either choice or accidental circumstances. This is a complex interaction which involves inter and intra personal forces operating in a group which determine the character, development and long term survival. What we need is the long term survival while leaving petty issues that surface to the dustbin where they belong.

Greening with his impressive background and experience with the English sevens remains an assistant coach should be looking at the long term development of the game and not from the performance in Manila alone as his association was around six weeks or less.

Vimal Perera is a former Rugby Referee, coach and Accredited Referees Evaluator IRB