Scotty Stevenson: Coach's culture club could really hurt us

England coach Stuart Lancaster is carefully building on his foundations. Photo / AP

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Stuart Lancaster sought an audience with Sir Brian Lochore last year on his fact-finding tour to New Zealand. Lochore's a good man to talk to about most things, but he knows more than most about what makes New Zealand rugby teams strong. Lancaster was on a mission; a mission not to pillage the nation for playbooks and game plans, but one to discover just what lay beneath the success - how deep were dug the foundations upon which enduring success has been built.

For so long, it seems, England has been typecast as the villain in international rugby's pantomime. The side hasn't helped itself over the years, of course. When you can describe its 2011 Rugby World Cup campaign in a single sentence that includes the words, "drunk", "dwarves", "CCTV" and "royal scandal", well, you get the idea. God Save the Queenstown.

They lose, they're terrible; they win, they're arrogant; they groom players from other countries, they're poaching; they rely on the born and the bred, they're boring and conservative - being a part of the England rugby team must feel like being stuck in a no-win situation, no matter how many times you win.

If nothing else - and there was plenty else - Lancaster knew this when he sought the England job. The problem was not so much about the playing, as the perception of the players. The England team had allowed its culture to reflect outsiders' attitudes toward it, and the rest was self-fulfilling prophecy.

Culture. Rugby coaches talk about it all the time these days. You could easily switch off at the very mention of the word (though "physicality" must rate as number one for annoyance factor) but it holds true. Rugby teams, at their most fundamental level, succeed and fail by the cultures they create.

Rugby remains a team game; a game rarely, if ever, decided solely by the deeds of the best player on the park. Remember the famous fan message to the All Blacks in 1995? "Rugby is a team game, all 14 of you give the ball to Jonah." It makes the point superbly - if Jonah was that good, he could have got the ball himself.

Rugby relies on the concept of team, and a team relies on the notion of culture. The All Blacks culture relies on creating internal expectations that outweigh those of the fans. That breeds success and that's what Stuart Lancaster wants.

Lancaster came to New Zealand last year on a quest for understanding, a kind of managerial pilgrimage. This was not about picking up on tactics - his coaching resume may not be packed with club titles but he knows his way around a whiteboard and, let's not forget, he had beaten the All Blacks at his first attempt - it was about seeking some sort of clarity around the creation of culture.

To those on the outside, not much has changed. In fact, to most observers this is yet another super-sized England squad, arriving in New Zealand via a scheduling nightmare, trailed all the way by headlines screaming "Cock Up", and only ever an inch away from a public relations disaster. But a sit-down with Stuart Lancaster may convince you otherwise.

You might just find a man driven to put the modern England into England rugby. A man who has been unafraid to cast the net that little bit wider. A man who is carefully building on his carefully laid foundations a team that can take on the best and win. A bloke who has yet to throw back any of the rocks to their original owners.

And do you know what Sir Brian Lochore told him when he asked why that All Blacks culture was so strong? He told him that we were an island nation at the bottom of the world and we fight like hell for our identity.

Lancaster coaches a team from an island nation at the top of the world. And even if you don't think they're a chance in this series, you better believe this: he has them fighting like hell for their own identity.