Culgaith's Stuart Lancaster believes his public failure as England rugby coach has made him a better leader.

Lancaster has resurrected his career with Leinster after he was sacked by the RFU in 2015 following a disastrous World Cup when England were knocked out in the pool stage.

But, last season, Penrith-born senior coach Lancaster led Leinster to European Champions Cup victory.

“Failure is part of being a good leader,” said Lancaster. “The best leaders use the hurt from failure to drive them.

"I failed on the public stage, and it’s what made me a better coach. I’m not Joe Schmidt [current Ireland coach], I’m not Martin Johnson [former England captain and coach], I’m not Eddie Jones [current England coach], I’m Stuart Lancaster and it’s important to be yourself.

"People want to see who you are, and pick up on that authenticity.”

Lancaster has been a huge hit at Leinster since he first joined in 2016.

“When I joined Leinster, I told the players, ‘There’s no other team in Europe who will have a stronger track record as Leinster’, and wanted to make the players believe they could achieve and win the European Cup. Not once or twice beyond what they’d won already, our goal is to achieve five times, then we’ll go for six or seven,” he said.

“It’s the leaders’ responsibility to set the goal, and then you get Johnny Sexton or Rob Kearney [Leinster and Ireland players] saying, ‘I want to achieve that goal’.”

Identity, Lancaster said, was important to England’s team too, and although he works in Ireland, his passion remains the same.

At a time where identity has dominated much of the political discourse, and with the arrival of Boris Johnson at the summit on Thursday, Lancaster let his feelings be known.

“Whether it’s England or Ireland, I think of us all as one big family, and you can tell Boris I said that,” he said.