Stuart Lancaster | New Connacht Rugby Head Coach | First interview

We sat down and spoke to our new Head Coach Stuart Lancaster who will be taking charge ahead of the 2025/26 season.

0:22 – A crazy 24 hours
1:37 – What drew him to Connacht
2:48 – First impressions of Dexcom Stadium and the HPC
4:07 – Previous meetings at Dexcom Stadium and Interpro games
5:20 – New coaching team
6:18 – Developing young players
8:10 – Grassroots rugby
9:55 – Message to supporters

#OneConnacht

[Music] stuart there’s been an overwhelmingly positive response to your announcement yesterday that you’re going to be the new head coach of Conor Rugby for the 25 26 season what’s the last 24 hours been like for yourself pretty crazy um I think the original plan was to was to announce it today uh anyway it got pulled forward to to yesterday so I was uh actually presenting at a conference it was a football conference in England football managers conference uh got the call from Willie saying “Listen I think we’re going to announce it.” And I said “Okay that’s grand but I’m just about to turn the phone off.” So anyway I uh did the conference it started about 11:00 and I put the phone on about 12:30 had about 100 text messages so uh no great response lots of people from Ireland who I’ve met in the past or players I’ve coached and um have been in contact people from my own family my own career uh in England and uh obviously in France as well the French lads text me uh and also people who are supporters of of Connor you know um there seems to be loads actually all over the world have come to conclusion so uh no it’s been amazing been amazing really so great to come across today to see the facility meet the uh and you know get a feel for what it’s going to be like in a in a few a few weeks time you’ve touched on it there a bit of your experience between Leeds where it started off and then into England and various roles there obviously head coach of the national squad Lster Rasing what was it that drew you to Connor in the west of Ireland i think I think obviously the the touch point with Ireland started with Lster and you know that first uh that first year at Lster I just realized how similar uh the people from Ireland are are to the people from Cumbria where I’m from originally and people from the north of England actually very similar you know I’m from a sort of farming background and um the rural nature of living in Cumbria uh and I actually went to a school on the on the west coast of Cumbria so it’s a bit like it’s not as bad as as the west coast of Ireland in terms of the wind and the the rain but it’s pretty similar um so that sort of connection with the the Irish uh culture grew during the seven years obviously then I took the opportunity to go to France and that was completely different uh but then when um I spoke to Williams to David Humphre and the opportunity to come back and then to come and do it in a in a club like Connor you know it was too it’s too good to turn down really so super excited um my wife Nina she’ll be across um soon enough so we’ll get her across we got two dogs so we need to navigate the ferry and get them across somehow but uh no we’re really looking forward to living over here and um and try to make a difference you know and first impressions new high performance center here at DesCOM Stadium what is it like to be here and and in situ and meeting some of the staff well it’s changed a lot hasn’t it i mean I mean my first my first year here was 20 um 16 play coaching Lester against Connor and the ground itself has obviously changed a huge amount i came and watched Rassing play because Dan was playing my son was playing for for Rasing against Connor and I saw the new stadium I was like wow that’s pretty impressive and I actually didn’t realize how how impressive this place is until I arrived today um because you know again going back to the lens to con games there was a sort of marquee where we are now and uh and that was it so to have a facility as good as this uh an indoor space a great gym good meeting room great facilities for the players you know physio SNC um the whole way it’s um designed is is geared towards high performance so to have a high performance center um for the players and the coaches to develop in to have a pitch that we can play a great brand of rugby on and to have a stadium where supporters can come and get behind the team it’s a win-winwin you know and the the development of the the environment here has been incredible really over the last few years um and credit to everyone who’s got it to this place um it wasn’t actually the the the bit that got me you know the bit that got me was to come and coach the team but actually this is a real bonus when you did come here and and as a as a coach of of the opposition what were your first impressions can you give us a bit of an insight into how you would have approached coming here to Dexcom Stadium to play against Connor uh it was never easy ever there were great games we had against Connor where where Lster managed to get across the line and there were times when Connor one particular time that sticks in my mind absolutely smashed Lster and it was the week before the Champions Cup final in 2018 and I still remember it now so Connor would always raise their game it’s felt it felt to me and uh um I would always impress on the lens to players the importance of the interpros uh and I think it’s something that I want I want to to bring to life again this season coming you know obviously the record last year wasn’t as strong as it should have been or could have been um and you know it’s not just about Lester obviously it’s about monster and Olster as well and and that that Irish rivalry is a real strength for Ireland but the sense of identity I think has always been very strong here and the passion of the supporters and the what it means to the people you could really feel it when you played against Connor and you always had to up your game another 10% to try and get over the line and sometimes Len did sometimes they didn’t um but there was never an easy game never coupled with new facilities there’s obviously a new coaching team as well uh Rob Sy is new attacks coach cully Tucker and John Lun are staying in situ and you have Billy Millard as well coming as general manager of the performance side how are you going to manage that and have you met the LS yet yeah so Billy I would have known before before I arrived um obviously uh I saw the news about Billy rejoining um Connor coming from Harley Quins and a big big plus of Billy coming coming to to Connor for me is that it it’ll mean that um a lot of the managerial part of the job which I don’t I don’t mind doing and I end up doing a lot of this in in France you know Billy and I can share and certainly Billy can take the lead on so it was a big big plus for me to to know that Billy was coming as as in that sort of general manager role um obviously with Willie and Tim and everyone else who’s here you know I feel there’s good support around me which means I can concentrate on the coaching and a very talented exciting squad to get your hands on as well and and you’ve touched on it there a level of experiences from maybe the the guys coming out of the academy and guys who are going on lines tours in particular the younger players you have a track record of developing and growing and supporting those young players to come through how excited are you about the prospects here in Conet rugby yeah yeah no I mean uh I look back at the uh in my uh presentation to the panel I did an analysis of the um last season and obviously the end result in terms of the lead table was not where anyone wanted it to be but actually statistically um in a lot of the metrics you you’d say con were very good so credit I think for the foundations that you know Mark Sexton Pete’s put in Scott Fardy you know I know pretty well those guys did a great job and I feel part of the attraction of coming was I felt the foundation is strong you know in terms of like the quality of the squad there’s been tweaks I would I’ll be thinking about in terms of like how we approach training and how we approach um certain games and how we play um but overall I think there’s a really good foundation and you know when I look at the the quality of the players the age profile of the squad the quality of the young players who are available and knowing what I know about how to try and develop that group um I think it’s a really exciting opportunity for us to kick on now um you know I you know you don’t want to put yourself and make uh predictions too early but if we can um improve the areas I think that are standing out to me obvious uh that are obvious to me um uh I think we do better than next season uh last season um set ourselves a goal of qualifying into the playoffs because obviously you’re in the playoffs this time of year and you want to be in those uh and and obviously Europe is a big one for me as well having had the experience of of Lster um and also the I guess the disappointment of Rasing really about how it turned out for me so there’s a real desire in me to want to do well uh and I want to pass on what I’ve learned to to the players and the coaches here and you’ve also always been very generous of your time towards grassroots rugby i’m sure it’d be no different here uh when you get across the five counties you must be looking forward to getting out beyond Gway and then you know seeing what has to offer that um you know I came I came through like the amateur era so Tuesday Thursday play a Saturday Tuesday Thursday play Saturday and uh I came from Cumbria which is you know very very similar and uh um so I understand how how important grassroots ruby is to the community and but also how grassroots rubby feeds into a province and how it feeds into into Connor so I would see that as a big priority for me to a engage with um the clubs and the schools and and with Eric in particular help Eric in the academy um and little things you can do like um masterclass evenings you know invite down coaches from from the clubs in in the area in the province and and share what you’ve learned you know is is an easy start point for me and I love doing that coach development stuff anyway um so yeah I see that happening early um obviously the other thing would be connection with uh supporters you know whenever I’ve been here it’s always been passionate and it’s only going to get hopefully bigger and better with the the new stand and how many people we can get into the ground but also the um sponsors you know because if we’re to grow Connor to be truly competitive which is what our aim is then we need to get the sponsors and the people who are going to support the club uh financially to really buy into the vision of where we’re going and if we can get everyone aligned together so that’s the grassroots the sponsors the supporters uh and the team and the players all going in one direction I think it’s a pretty powerful force i really do and I think within you know 12 to 18 months we can really be starting to make a move into the where we want to be which is the you know the top echelons of the game in Europe we’ve been making a big move ourselves across into the the new facilities and the new Dexcom stadium in earnest in January time but what is the message for supporters from the start of the season well I think just keep keep doing what you’re doing like I think you know your support is amazing i’ve never been here once and not felt the passion i know there’s there’s been some tough times as well but I really think the stadium the facility the new coaching team um you know the playing group obviously is maybe similar but I’m confident we can get another 20 30 40% out of them um so get behind get behind the group um you know I’m looking at the preseason plan and one of the things I’m really want to try and do is create an open training club open training sessions um and um potentially even have like a training game um before we actually get the first game on board and um and get supporters down so they get a feel for the evolution i’ll be as good as I can be in terms of like coms and giving the the insight um which again makes people feel part of the team um because I think if you can draw that energy together it’s an unbelievably hard place to come and win here um but then we need to be as good on the road as well when we don’t have the home support so that’s the challenge as well but um I’m excited and I think supporters will be uh hopefully excited to see the team play brilliant thanks very much Sh thanks