RWC 2015 fallout: England coach Stuart Lancaster moved by support to stay on

Lancaster said his time for reflection on whether to go on had been limited to a half-hour walk with the dog, accompanied by his wife, Nina, on Wednesday

Stuart Lancaster is leading from the front in terms of media duties this week (Reuters)

Stuart Lancaster, the England coach, said that the national team structure he has built should not be dismantled and showed no signs he intends to step down because of the side’s early elimination from the World Cup.

Buoyed by what he said were hundreds of messages of support, including a number from fellow international coaches, Lancaster cut a far brighter figure than the desolate individual who declared five days ago that England’s early exit would never leave him. To the suggestion that an overhaul was needed, he said: “Personally I would say no, but I would say that, wouldn’t I, because I built it.” Though his team’s failings have been attributed to his lack of elite level coaching, he countered that his 45 games in charge made him the second most experienced England coach of all time.

Lancaster has concluded that he must lead from the front in the face of the deluge of criticism this week, dispensing with his habit of leaving Thursday and Friday press conferences to his assistants and taking each of the media events at the team’s north Manchester base ahead of Saturday’s dead rubber against Uruguay, the pool’s weakest side.

He said his time for reflection on whether to go on had been limited to a half-hour walk with the dog, accompanied by his wife, Nina, on Wednesday. Asked if that had helped him reach conclusions, he said: “It was raining most of the time, so we didn’t talk that much.” In the immediate aftermath of defeat to Australia he met each of the players individually for 10-minute discussions, which constituted a marathon six hours of reflection.

He seems to be ready to continue if the Rugby Football Union’s review does not conclude that he is not the man to take England on. “It’s a tough job, there’s no denying it. I’m very proud to do the job and put an awful lot of work in over the past four years. But we’ll see...” Lancaster said.

Of the training ground confrontation between Danny Cipriani and assistant coach Mike Catt, Lancaster reflected that such incidents can occur within the pressure of a World Cup camp. “I wouldn’t say it was an inevitability,” he reflected. “But it does occasionally happen. I’d say it was very, very isolated. You occasionally get flashpoints. You are playing 15 on 15, you have guys competing for positions, and clearly you are sometimes going to get moments like that. But they are very few and far between.”

Danny Care, who plays his first part in the World Cup at scrum-half at the Manchester City stadium, said Lancaster would not walk away.

“He is a fighter,” Care said. “I know that. He has worked so hard all his life to get this job. You can’t underestimate what he has done for this squad to build those foundations, which we can’t go back on now as a squad. I don’t think you’ll see Stuart Lancaster walking away from anything.”