The last few months, though, were understandably difficult, making it probably for the best all round when Racing elected not to retain Lancaster at the end of the season.It wasn’t long before word reached Franco Smith that the Scottish-qualified back was a free agent and a deal was concluded to bring Lancaster to Glasgow.

“It’s a really long story but at the end of May I found out I wasn’t staying at Racing for one reason – and that was because they wanted to get rid of the Lancaster name,” he said. “Then I got a call from Franco and it was very smooth sailing and easy. It was one conversation. I told my agent, ‘I want to come to Glasgow’ so it was easy.

“Last year was almost, not bittersweet as obviously you want the team to be successful, but it was an invaluable experience. Playing so much rugby in a league which is very well respected, it’s huge. Playing loads of games, playing in big stadiums, and learning off people around me like Owen [Farrell] has been massive for my career.

“I got picked [at fly-half] initially because Owen was injured. And the more time I had in the saddle, the more I was comfortable. In the end, it’s not every day you beat Toulouse away, beat Bordeaux at home, Clermont away. They’re pretty significant. Obviously, the end result was not where we wanted to be. But there are some games which I’ll remember for the rest of my career.”

His dad’s sacking at the start of the year, though, hit hard, with Lancaster feeling partially responsible for the way it came about.

“There were some ridiculously tough times,” admits the 24-year-old. “I also knew myself that my dad wasn’t happy. You could tell he wasn’t happy because the team weren’t putting their best foot forward. We were losing games. It was hard. When he got sacked, I took a lot of responsibility for that. At the end of the day, he’s a coach first, but he’s also my dad. Everyone has feelings.

“So, that was tough.  Probably the hardest game was the Toulon away game [at the start of January]. I put everything into that game and we lost again. You could just see the pressure. I was broken after that game. It was definitely tough times, but definitely good learning experiences. For me, the proudest thing was still getting picked after he’d gone. I think that was almost the narrative that I was getting picked because Stuart was in charge. It was the same when Patrice was in charge as well. I think that was probably the most pleasing thing for me.

“People from the outside would say I was fast-tracked last year. Obviously, I was only at Ealing the year before and then moved to Racing. You definitely had to earn the respect there in terms of proving yourself. But I don’t feel like I have to prove myself to anyone here. I just feel like I need to do what I’m supposed to do. I need to get my head down, graft and things will come off the back of it.”

With his dad now embracing a new challenge with Connacht, Lancaster will now be working under a surrogate father figure in Smith. Adam Hastings, Charlie Savala and Duncan Weir will provide competition for the No.10 shirt but, should Lancaster impress, it shouldn’t be long before he is pushing his way into Gregor Townsend’s Scotland plans, too.

“I’d be lying if I said [the chance to represent Scotland] wasn’t [part of the reason for coming],” said the former Scotland under-18 international. “Obviously, I’m Scots qualified through my grandma who’s from Dumfries. It would be a massive honour to represent Scotland. For me, in the short term, it’s just gaining respect of teammates and coaches here and making the most of it if I get a chance with Scotland.

“I had a chat with Gregor just before our last game of the season. Obviously, they went with a different route at the time and I wished them good luck for the summer tour. It was good to have a conversation, just talk rugby and talk my game as well.”

Lancaster has also turned out for England’s under-20s in the past but says there have been no recent conversations with first-team head coach Steve Borthwick.

“I haven’t spoken to any of them recently. Steve came in last year to Racing for a day, so it was good to have a catch-up with him.. Obviously, a lot of the coaches were my coaches at Leicester at the time. For me, it’s about playing the best rugby here to put myself in an opportunity to get picked [for Scotland]. I’ve not done anything yet. We’ve only played one pre-season game.

“We’ve got another one on Friday [against Northampton Saints] which is massive. There’s so much rugby to be played before even thinking about [Scotland]. I’m so far away from thinking about it – I’m still writing team calls down on my hand!”