For more than 12 centuries pilgrims have travelled to northern Spain in search of spiritual fulfilment and emotional comfort. Stuart Lancaster has only to alight from Leinster’s team bus at Bilbao’s San Mamés stadium rather than walk the trail to Santiago de Compostela but, after two-and-a-half years, his journey to professional redemption is finally complete.
The Champions Cup final against Racing 92 is not just about one man but it is a particularly resonant day for England’s erstwhile coach. The last must-win showpiece games his family attended were in 2015 when England were bowing out of their home World Cup at Twickenham. A big occasion for rugby lovers in Dublin, Paris and the Basque country also marks a personally significant return to the sunlit uplands for Lancaster and his wife, Nina, their two children, parents and friends.
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Those who assume sacked English coaches simply shrug their shoulders and ease into another highly paid role are oblivious to the stark reality. Cumbrian farmers’ sons never wallow in self pity but even Lancaster’s positivity drained away during 2016 when he was jobless with no clear route back into top-level rugby. This week, in a small room on Dublin’s south side, it all finally came tumbling out. “The main thing was a lack of purpose. Not having a team to coach was really eating away at me, not being able to put anything right and just having to sit there thinking about it. It is very difficult when you are out of work.”
But for a series of unexpected coincidences, he might still be in Leeds agonising over what might have been. The first emerged on the eve of the 2016 domestic season when Leinster’s defence coach, Kurt McQuilkin, headed back to New Zealand at short notice because his sister was ill. By sheer luck Lancaster used to play with Simon Easterby, Ireland’s forwards coach, whose brother Guy was the Leinster manager. When Lancaster’s name first came up in the Ireland office, the nearest man across the desk was Andy Farrell, previously a member of his England coaching staff.
Even now Lancaster sounds immensely grateful: “If this role hadn’t come up, I don’t know how it would have played out. There was certainly nothing else in the pipeline. There was no time for ‘Am I or am I not good enough to be coaching at this level?’ It was a case of: ‘You’re in because we’re at Glasgow on Friday.’”
The existence of direct flights from Leeds to Dublin also avoided having to uproot his two children, Sophie and Dan, from their A-level studies. All those dawn airport dashes through the snow to catch his twice-weekly flights have been worth it. At his first team meeting, Lancaster told the players they could win in Europe – “My opening line was: ‘I think we can do great things here’”– and now they are 80 minutes from doing so for the first time since 2012. Their still-improving squad are increasingly the envy of Europe and the players are glowing about Lancaster’s technical input. Among the believers is their tactical kingpin Johnny Sexton, another instrumental figure in his recruitment.
“Johnny texted me and said: ‘Let me know what you need me to do to help get it over the line.’ That is pretty powerful coming from a guy who we’d played against five times with England.”
Which begs several tantalising questions. Could it be that Lancaster would make a better international coach now than the less experienced model hired by England after the incident-packed 2011 World Cup campaign in New Zealand? Ireland have already drafted in Farrell and, after 2019, there are likely to be a number of vacancies in all sorts of interesting places.
Alternatively – “I really enjoy the day-to-day element of club coaching” – could this most approachable and personable of sporting figures may yet conclude he is naturally more suited to club and provincial team preparation? As things stand, it gives him the same match-day buzz without the managerial distractions that restricted the amount of hands-on coaching he did with England. Wherever he goes next, he has promised not to make that same mistake again.
Not being the formal number one – with Leo Cullen the Leinster director of rugby – also does not bother him. “I am quite happy to take on responsibility and decision-making if needs be but I don’t have to be the number one. Wayne Smith is a good example. He was coaching New Zealand, then he went to Northampton, then he came back and worked under Graham Henry. I don’t want to give the impression I wouldn’t want to go back and be a number one at some point but it works at the moment for me. As long as I’ve got a strong role that would be fine.”
He does admit that watching England from afar can still be tricky, particularly when a Leinster-heavy Ireland beat his former charges at Twickenham in March. “You can’t help but look and see how the team are doing. You are so invested in it.” Lancaster’s team never lost three championship games on the trot or finished fifth but he remains faithful to the players.
“England are still a great team. I wouldn’t read too much into the Six Nations, it came down to small margins. I would never not want England to do well, particularly when I know how hard the players worked in 2012-15. What happened in the World Cup hurts them just as much as it hurts me.”
Ah, the World Cup. Maybe a Leinster win would alleviate some of the pain that clearly lingers. “Obviously I still look back with huge regret that we didn’t do better. Things didn’t go well for about half an hour of the Wales game and that changed everything.”
In a results-based business, the fallout was never going to be pretty. “It’s tough, particularly for my parents, when criticism is coming your way. I would look at other coaches and feel for them because it’s difficult to get back.”
All of which makes his family’s presence – minus his daughter who turned 18 this week – in the San Mamés stands all the more special. Despite his protests to the contrary – “It’s more about repaying Leinster than vindication” – one of modern sport’s most heart-warming comeback stories now awaits its conclusion.