Stuart Lancaster looking to define the essence of England as he prepares for the Six Nations and World Cup "It's a good book," Lancaster says. It's about leadership, based on the principles the All Blacks have used in their culture and their identity, and some of the values they live by. It also extensively quotes commentary from books like Jim Collins" The Leadership Challenge. Bill Walsh's book [The Score Takes Care of Itself] is also quoted in there. It has long been known that the book written by Walsh, the former coach of the San Francisco 49ers, is at the heart of Lancaster's coaching philosophy, with its contention that the establishment of a culture higher than that of your opponent will bring victory. "That is still at the core of my coaching philosophy," he says. My philosophy hasn't changed in the sense that I have always wanted to build long-term winning teams in high-performance environments. Last summer Lancaster went to both Australia and New Zealand to broaden that desire. "I learnt a lot about the psychology of both countries," he says. Someone asked me a while ago about the biggest thing I'd learnt in the job. And I guess the answer was that, while I had a good understanding of the English system and its players, culture and environment, having lived and breathed it for the last 20 years of my life, I had less knowledge of the opposition, having not played international rugby. Among many meetings, in New Zealand Lancaster spoke to Sir Brian Lochore, and in Australia he visited the top three National Rugby League clubs, the Sydney Roosters, Melbourne Storm and the South Sydney Rabbitohs. And during the recent autumn series he was able to return the compliment to the Roosters, inviting coach Trent Robinson and his staff into the England camp. "We were looking into the identity of the England team," says Lancaster, "and what it means to be English and represent this team. We have still got some work to do on it, but we definitely made a really strong connection with the players from previous eras. Lancaster wrote to a group of former England internationals, including Jonathan Webb, Bill Beaumont, Peter Winterbottom, Bob Hiller, Bev Risman and Micky Steele-Bodger. We asked them to articulate what it meant to play for England at that time, and also what it means to see England be successful now. They were delighted to contribute. I got a guy who was doing research for me to go and interview them. What we were looking for were some anchors that can provide traits for what England sides have done in the past and we can say: "This is what being English is and this is what playing for this team is." " The upshot was an evening that was a throwback to Lancaster's former working environment of the classroom. We had a talk through the history of English rugby with some images and slides, stories of Grand Slam teams of old, plus stories of England players who lost their lives in the Wars. It was a history lesson for the players and for us as coaches. I didn't know a lot of it, either. The players were massively engaged in it. They really enjoyed the evening. An extension of this was the revamp of the Twickenham changing rooms, which were overhauled as part of a £70 million regeneration, including the construction of a disc on the ceiling featuring five of the coach's buzzwords: teamwork, respect, enjoyment, discipline and sportsmanship. Photographs of the new facilities caused something of a stir, with the home changing room being likened to the Starship Enterprise. "It looks space age from the photos but it is not," Lancaster says. It's obviously modern but it makes you appreciate the history of England rugby, which is what we wanted. It was a combination of people's ideas. I pulled it together. But Matt Parker [once of British Cycling but now the Rugby Football Union's head of athletic performance] did a great job in working with the designers. When we got in there we could show the players the history wall, the debut board and also behind each player's changing spot were the names of those who had played in their position before. So you get across the point that you are not just playing for your friends and family but also those who have played previously in your position. Did it help? There was certainly huge character shown in England's three autumn internationals. They now possess a formidable pack. In defeating Australia, they were also alone amongst northern hemisphere teams in beating any of the big three of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, but there remained the undeniable conclusion that the southern hemisphere back play was so much superior. "I think the difference is about applying skills under pressure and maximising the unstructured opportunities that come your way," Lancaster says. The majority of tries in modern rugby come from turnover ball or kick returns - unstructured situations. We recognise those situations, but we need to get better at executing them. We have still got some work to do on that. But I don't think the gap is massive. Stuart Lancaster was speaking on behalf of QBE, the business insurance specialist, who are committed to supporting the development of rugby www.QBErugby.com