Six Nations: Stuart Lancaster wants to change public image of English team ahead of Calcutta Cup

STUART Lancaster has had to deal with Sir Clive Woodward this week calling him “lucky” to get the England job, even on an interim basis, and opinions flying across the English game as to whether someone who has not played for England nor coached one of the top clubs has what it takes to drive the nation forward from its controversial World Cup display.

But confirming at yesterday’s RBS Six Nations Championship launch that he will be applying for the post on a permanent basis, the northerner with a Scottish mother laid bare his passions for the role. The 42-year-old spoke clearly about how he was striving to turn around the public image of the England time ahead of their trip to Murrayfield and the opening match in the tournament in just nine days’ time.

He talked firmly in the present and future tenses, keeping clear of whether Robinson was right in what he said about the World Cup players, and without saying so in words made it clear that any player who did step out of line would not feature in future teams.

Having spoke at length in an interview with The Scotsman several weeks ago about how feelings for Scotland, pride in wearing the Scotland jersey and of his dream as a boy to play at Murrayfield, he told us yesterday: “The focus now is very much on the future and England. It has to be for me doesn’t it?

“I had great times playing with Scotland at age-grade and student levels and have great friends that have stayed with me from those days, but I have only a small number of days to get this team ready for the Calcutta Cup match and so I don’t have time to think about the past.

“What I’ve been trying to do this week is put my philosophy into this squad environment. My personal philosophy is that we want to have a team that is confident, respectful of the opposition and responsible for the shirt they are wearing, and hopefully those values will shine through this next week, and long beyond.

“This is just my philosophy; it’s what I believe in. I guess I’ve come from a working-class background, a farm background and all that goes with it, and from a club that’s had to struggle. When you’ve come through with Leeds and worked and worked and worked to get there, you appreciate every day you’re at that top table, and I guess that is a part of my values.

“If any player takes the field disrespecting the opposition you’re probably not going to win the game. It’s about respect for ourselves and what we’re trying to achieve, and respect for the opposition, and if you get those bits right, and keep your feet on the ground, work hard and have talent, then you have a force that can win games.

“I can’t control what other people think or say, but I’m not interested in tit-for-tats, or wars of words.”

Neither was he interested in predicting which way his first Calcutta Cup match will swing, nor what England might achieve in the championship.

“You’re not going to catch me on the ‘we’ll win three games or four games’. I’d like to think that the players will leave this camp on Friday excited and motivated to get back here on Sunday. The second thing is that when we get to the end of the championship the players feel we have started on a journey, worked as hard as we can and get what we deserve.

“If you’re asking what I see when I lie awake at night what I see it is a team that enjoys each other’s company, who work hard for each other, who their country are proud of and get the respect back for each other.”

Like every coach, he has characters who can make and break a squad. He has left out a handful of World Cup performers, mostly experienced players he does not see as part of England’s campaign through to the next World Cup in 2015, and he will be without lock Courtney Lawes at least for the Calcutta Cup match he confirmed. But some players remain in squad who have had their attitudes questioned in the past, including Chris Ashton and his famous swallow dives.

Asked about him specifically yesterday, Lancaster said: “He is desperate to play well for England and we talked about behaviour and what I expect of an England player but I’m not going to ban swallow dives. We had a really good conversation about what he wants to get out of being an England player and I gave him a pretty frank assessment of what I thought an England player should do, and that wasn’t about do or don’t do this, or swallow dives, but a more collective responsibility on and off the field. Chris Ashton is a very good player and he has been training very well.

“I talk about the energy equation in teams. You have players that give energy to a team and players that take energy out of teams. When an issue starts is when players take energy out of a team because of their ego or irresponsible behaviour or whatever. So if I think anybody sits in that bracket then ultimately … well, there are people who want to play for England and selection is a coach’s prerogative.

“I’ll see the Saxons this weekend, and up in Scotland next week as well at Galashiels and there are guys there who want to play for England.”

He has called in some extra help this week from non-rugby sportsmen who know what it means to play at the highest level in England, including former Manchester United and England footballer Gary Neville, Leeds Rhinos and England rugby league captains Kevin Sinfield and Jamie Peacock and Glamorgan and England cricketer Hugh Morris, as well as sports psychologist Bill Beswick and Simon Brown, a West Yorkshire soldier who lost his eyesight in Basra.

Lancaster is clearly excited at the opportunity he has, and the former PE teacher is strong on what he believes are essential values. It is intriguing that his counterpart with Scotland – as if a Scottish cap leading England and English cap leading Scotland into a Calcutta Cup is not intriguing enough – has also begun to voice his own rugby values more strongly recently. Asked specifically about Woodward’s comments that he was lucky to be in the job, Lancaster just smiled.

“Everyone has an opinion and that is fine – everybody is entitled to an opinion – but the only opinions that matter to me are those of the players and the management, because I know that if we have a collective power behind us and can take our friends and families and nation behind us that becomes a powerful force.

“It is my belief that to get England back on track there were a variety of things we had to do. One was selection, another was to reconnect with the public and another to get you guys [media] and public to understand what we’re trying to achieve, but the most important thing was to get the players in the same place, talk about rugby, the game-plan and talking about what it means to play for England.

“I’m in the very fortunate position of currently doing the job and clearly I’m interested in doing it [permanently], but it’s not my decision to make. There are many people in England and outside England who want to do this job.

“I’ve been on the other side appointing people and I believe that if you have the right process you will get the right person, and I’m confident in the process whether it’s me that gets it or somebody else.

“My focus is on England and our first match at Murrayfield in less than ten days. That is enough to be thinking about.”