ONE STEP CLOSER TO HISTORY

Lancaster is relieved to be over first hurdle as he eyes a triumph that would better 2003

If England do win it, they will probably make a film about him

STUART LANCASTER stood in a cavernous room beneath one of the stands at Twickenham, his back straight, his T-shirt wrinkle-free, his hair short, his arms folded. Everything was still in order. Nothing was out of place. Everything was still on course.

Fiji had been dispatched. Not without concerns. Not without moments of nervousness. But they had been dispatched and that was all that mattered. Lancaster allowed himself to feel some relief at last. It was, the England coach said, his dominant emotion.

It had been a long, draining day waiting for one of the biggest nights of his life, the night when a former PE teacher at a secondary school in Wakefield led his country into a home World Cup with ambition growing all around him by the minute and many seeking to anoint his team world champions before they had set foot on turf.

The hours had dragged at the team’s base at Pennyhill Park in Surrey. ‘As a coach, there’s not a lot you can do in the hours of daylight before a night game,’ Lancaster said. ‘You can twiddle your thumbs a bit but we have got 8 o’clock kick offs all the way so we’d better get used to it.’

Lancaster had eaten up some of the hours by watching a film. He would not say which one. Maybe it was Invictus. Maybe it was Gladiator. Maybe it was This Sporting Life, the story of a young Yorkshireman who finds an outlet for his anger playing rugby league in Wakefield. Maybe it was Building Jerusalem, the story of the 2003 World Cup triumph.

If England win this World Cup, they will probably make a film about Lancaster, too, because his is a remarkable story, a rise against the odds to the top of his profession, an opportunity to lead his country into the most high profile rugby tournament there has ever been.

When rugby’s favourite member of the royal family, Prince Harry, spoke to the Twickenham crowd before the match on Friday night, Lancaster could have written his speech. As the opening ceremony came to a close, he talked of many of the principles and beliefs that Lancaster espouses.

‘I can think of no other sport where the success of the team is shouldered so equally by everyone,’ Prince Harry said, echoing Lancaster’s belief that football or cricket matches can be won by great individual feats but that a rugby result is wholly dependent on the team.

‘Rugby has changed dramatically in my lifetime,’ Prince Harry continued, ‘but it remains a game founded on a code of values, values which are as important today, both on and off the field of play, as they have ever been.’

Lancaster and his players had been sitting in the dressing room during the ceremony. ‘They were like caged animals,’ Lancaster said. They could not hear the strains of Jerusalem or Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, sung by a choir from Rugby School, but they understood the enormity of the occasion.

Lancaster stole outside for a couple of minutes to watch the ceremony and drink in the atmosphere. If he heard Prince Harry’s speech, it would have pleased him. Lancaster is a rugby evangelist, a man who believes the game is a force for selfimprovement, a game that instils discipline, commitment and selflessness in those who play it. Prince Harry was speaking his language.

Friday night was Lancaster’s graduation, his appearance on the biggest stage of all at the head of his team, the start of his chance to lead England towards a triumph that would mock his humble origins in the game and turn his underdog players into heroes.

So much is at stake because so much is on offer. The chance to eclipse even the great team of 2003 by winning on home soil and feeding off the tide of emotion that would bring the chance to be remembered alongside Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson, Sir Clive Woodward and the rest of them.

So it was little wonder Lancaster felt relieved. A hurdle had been cleared. A banana skin had been avoided. Losing to Fiji would have turned his world upside down and even though there had been some nervous moments, that fate had been avoided. In the end, it had been avoided emphatically.

Lancaster deserved much of the credit for that, too. The opening match had been about shepherding his players from danger and he had done that calmly and decisively.

When England’s gallivanting 15-0 lead had dwindled to an 18-11 advantage and the Twickenham crowd was starting to grow restless, Lancaster had thrown on a quartet of replacements, including the Vunipola brothers, Billy and Mako, who turned the tide of the game.

It was Billy who scored England’s late fourth try to give his side what may be a crucial extra point. ‘I feel relieved to have got the win and I feel relieved to have got the four-try bonus,’ Lancaster said, as his players began to file in to speak to the media. ‘I would have bitten your hand off for that.’

The opposition will get harder but dealing with the sense of occasion will surely get easier. Wales and Australia will be formidable opponents in the weeks ahead and it will be louder inside Twickenham than it was on Friday night but, as he stood savouring victory, Lancaster knew that the weight of expectation had been his opponent just as much as the Pacific Islanders.

‘The key thing was to get the balance right in terms of the emotional pitch of things and not being overwhelmed by the pressure of the occasion,’ Lancaster said. ‘It was such a big occasion and when you are locked in the changing room for half an hour while the opening ceremony is going on, it is hard.’

He had not given a Churchillian speech before the game. ‘There were a few moments in the week but on game day, you have to be focused on the performance really,’ he said.

So he had spoken about functional things. He had spoken about discipline. He had spoken about ‘maximising opportunities’ in attack. He had spoken about making a fast start.

And now he was here. And now they had done it. And now the first hurdle had been negotiated. Immortality is still a distant prospect but, for Lancaster, another chapter in this remarkable sporting life is under way.