Stuart Lancaster has admitted to being surprised at the hundreds of supportive messages he has received in the aftermath of England’s World Cup exit, with Danny Care describing the head coach as a “fighter” who will not walk away from the job.
Lancaster fronted up to the media once again as the fallout from England’s defeat by Australia and elimination continued. The tournament hosts still have a pool match against Uruguay to play on Saturday, with an RFU review into their disastrous campaign to be held on the squad’s return from Manchester.
Lancaster’s position is the key issue to resolve. He has a contract that runs until 2020 and believes the decision to stay or go will be out of his hands but he appeared in a slightly more optimistic mood on Thursday than in the days previously, defending his record prior to the World Cup and bristling at suggestions that Chris Robshaw, the captain, should step down from England duty.
On his future, Lancaster said: “There was a little bit of thinking time, I had a half-hour walk with my wife and the dog on Wednesday. Then I came here, so that’s the sum total of my reflection time, half an hour. I need to have those reflections in due course but I haven’t had the time this week. I’ve been flat out preparing for the game.
“It’s been nice, the number of texts and emails of support I’ve had, running into the hundreds, saying: ‘We are all equally disappointed, however, we can all see what you’re doing and where the team are going, and the foundations are strong and the way you’ve gone about trying to build a team and the way the team have responded’. There has been a lot of that, surprisingly for me actually.
“I’ve learned a lot along the way and, obviously, I back myself to coach at this level, no doubt about it. We’ve proven it by beating this team and this team, and this team. We haven’t played South Africa that often, we drew with them and we’ve beaten every other international team along the way, Wales away and home, Ireland away and home, Australia twice on the bounce, New Zealand. So we’ve beaten all these teams but you get judged on the one thing. For 70 minutes against Wales, we were in charge of the game and we lost it.”
Care, who will start his first World Cup match at scrum-half in one of eight changes, backed Lancaster to stay on and said the team owed him a performance against Uruguay. “He is a fighter – I know that,” said Care. “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. We all bought into it four years ago.
“Stuart will always meet anyone with a smile on his face. He’s done that from day one. He’s taking a lot of stick at the moment – as everyone is – but it is a measure of him that he fronts it up every day and doesn’t shirk it. The lads who haven’t been involved yet are buzzing to play this weekend and hopefully our energy and drive will help the lads who felt gutted and down at the start of the week.
“We have another Test match around the corner. We know we can’t make it right because we know how disappointed we are to crash out of a World Cup but we can restore a bit of pride and finish the tournament on a high and leave a good memory at the World Cup.”
World Rugby is set to decide on Friday whether England will be punished after allegedly breaching communication protocols with matchday officials in the tunnel against the Wallabies. Mike Catt will step up should any England coaches be banned.
