Watch: Stuart Lancaster - 'You can't make the pain go away'

A lot can happen in two years and it’s roughly that long ago that Stuart Lancaster was in the Twickenham stands, watching the home team, England, become the first team to leave their own Rugby World Cup at the group stage.

As a proud Englishman, he would have been devastated and that’s before you add in the fact that he was the coach.

Most coaches don’t return from such high publicity failings, Gareth Jenkins is an obvious comparison, throwing in his towel after Wales lost to Fiji at the 2007 World Cup.

Lancaster, on the other hand, appears to be a man of true grit and preservation, making it hard not to admire the way he has conducted himself after such a public execution.

It would have been easy for him to take the no doubt sizeable payout he received from the RFU and concentrate on the finer things in life but this isn’t in his DNA.

At Leinster, he is in his element – away from the press conferences and sponsorship obligations he has focused on bringing something extra to their game.

Leinster has offered Lancaster the perfect platform from which to rebuild his career from the smouldering ashes of the Sam Burgess – Rugby World Cup fiasco.

Yesterday, Lancaster sat down with Irish radio station Newstalk to discuss how that period in his life impacted on him, changing him as a person.

In a fantastic and candid interview, we see the many different facets of life affected by a role in the spotlight, such as his was.

“My mum made a really good point. She said, it doesn’t matter how old you are Stuart, you’re my son and I want to defend you and you know, she couldn’t,” said Lancaster.

It isn’t often you get to peek behind the curtain of professional rugby and see the genuine human emotion that’s embroiled beneath but this is certainly a glimpse.

Credit: Off The Ball

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