Australia<\/a> rang and I definitely felt they said very strongly. \u2018Listen, Joe is going to finish after Rugby Championship, we need someone to come in and help us lead into the 2027 World Cup\u2019,” he recalled.<\/p>\n\u201cI felt certainly burnt out [following his Racing 92 exit] but when the call came I was, \u2018This is an exciting challenge, a chance to go to a different country\u2019. I had the feeling this is something I can commit to.”<\/p>\n
However, while he remained enthusiastic about the role, Lancaster claims he was largely left in the dark over the following three months as he was forced to put his own life on hold, only to learn via a phone call that he wouldn’t be getting the job around two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Hitting out at Rugby Australia over the way he was treated, the coach said the union had a “responsibility to be honest and transparent and consistent with [their] communication”, with the role a “life-changing” matter for those on the shortlist.<\/p>\n
“[RA’s approach] was the start of February and when I finally realised I wasn\u2019t going to go to Australia was last week (late April), so we are talking nearly three months,” he continued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t mind if [things] are changing, I get the fact that in a complex recruitment process, there might be a different dynamic at play, they are interviewing different coaches or they are thinking we are going to go down this route and not that route. Whatever. I don\u2019t mind. Just tell me. Don\u2019t not say anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is grown up here. I just need to know what is going on and to not have that the more and more it went on, the more disappointed I became. In the end, last week I got a phone call to say actually Joe is going to stay on now until 2026 and there is no job at all. I was like, \u2018Ah\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo for the last three months I was sat waiting thinking am I potentially going to live in Sydney and how would it work, this is my vision for the role and I\u2019m getting excited about it to the point where you are thinking ‘I am not sure this is not going to happen’ and then to find out it is definitely not going to happen,” Lancaster added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe feedback I gave was one of the rules of leadership, that bad news should never come as a shock so if you had known this was potentially going to happen, you should have let me know so at least then I could have moved on and there are other opportunities out there so why wait.”<\/p>\n
The former England boss admitted the disillusionment he already felt from being let go by Racing had “definitely not been helped” by the process he went through with Rugby Australia, and he is still “working through that”.<\/p>\n
But while he has questioned whether he wants to go back into the “crazy world of sport” in another coaching role and put himself and his family under more pressure, Lancaster says he is also not necessarily throwing the towel in with a number of “club and international jobs” in the northern hemisphere on his radar.<\/p>\n
However, wherever he ends up next, he says, will “go down to fit”.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say no if I had to go back to France. I probably wouldn\u2019t go back as a No1, I\u2019d go under a French No1 probably. I can definitely go back in an organisation that was motivated and can see potential. I don\u2019t think with the next job but I wouldn\u2019t say no to that,\u201d said Lancaster.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe southern hemisphere is always an attraction, but the Australia thing isn\u2019t going to happen. New Zealand tend not to appoint coaches from outside New Zealand. There might be one or two chances to build relationships in South Africa, which I would be keen to explore.<\/p>\n
“And obviously the northern hemisphere, there is club and international jobs coming up, but again it goes down to fit, they have got to want you and you have got to want to go.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The experienced coach has been left ‘disappointed’ and ‘disillusioned’ as he claims he was left in the dark…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92822,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5010],"tags":[43843,748,4884,16,15,1764,14260],"class_list":{"0":"post-92821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wales","8":"tag-australia-rugby-team","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-wales","14":"tag-wales-rugby-team"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114489439921773092","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92821"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92821\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Lancaster](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1_GettyImages-2189899550.jpg\")
Lancaster has hit out over his treatment by Rugby Australia(Image: David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n