‘They wanted rid of the Lancaster name’: Glasgow Warriors' new signing opens up on leaving Racing and Scotland

It might lack the glitz of Paris but the stand-off doesn’t seem to mind.

Lancaster, 24, left Racing 92 in the French capital in the summer to sign a two-year deal with Franco Smith at Glasgow Warriors. It’s a fresh start in a new league and also opens the door to a potential Scotland call, but that’s for the future. For now, Lancaster is concentrating on breaking into the Glasgow team.

His year in Paris proved a tumultuous one but could yet be the making of him.

It was a season of extremes. He played more games than ever before, appearing 25 times for Les Racingmen, and enjoyed wins over Toulouse and Bordeaux, champions of France and Europe, respectively. But there were gut-wrenching lows too.

Ridiculously tough times

“Some ridiculously tough times,” is how he puts it. His dad, Stuart Lancaster, was appointed head coach of Racing in 2023 and signed Dan last summer from Ealing Trailfinders. Results didn’t go their way and Stuart was shown the door in February with Racing 12th in the Top 14. He was replaced by former Racing prop Patrice Collazo. Dan toughed it out until the end of the season when he too parted company with the club.

“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 that they wanted to get rid of the Lancaster name,” he explains. “Then I got a call from Franco and it was very smooth sailing and easy. It was one conversation, the manager rang me and I said, ‘I want to come to Glasgow’, so it was easy.”

He got a brief taste of it last season when Racing played the Warriors in the Champions Cup at Scotstoun, coming on as a second-half replacement as the French side lost 29-19 in January.

“At the time I didn't think I was going to be back here, but it's funny how things work out, isn't it?”

Learning from Owen Farrell

Within a month, his dad had left the club and Dan was left in a very difficult situation. It would have been easy to take the huff or go into his shell but Lancaster is made of strong stuff and proved a key member of the Racing side who staged something of a mini-revival.

With Owen Farrell sidelined by injury, Lancaster took the reins at 10 and piloted Racing to some notable results, including the eye-catching home win over Bordeaux in March and the win over Toulouse at the usually impregnable Stade Ernest-Wallon in May. He played the full 80 minutes in both games.

Racing ended the season in 10th place, well below expectations, but Lancaster had proved himself in arguably the best league in the world.

“Obviously you want the team to be successful, but it was an invaluable experience,” he says. “Playing so much rugby in a league which is very well respected, it's huge. Playing loads of games, playing in the stadiums, playing the kind of players, learning off people around me like Owen [Farrell] it's been massive for my career.

“Now it's time for me to transfer that onto the pitch and not just learn off someone, but help someone else learn, help a young lad like Matty Urwin [Glasgow’s Scotland U20 international stand-off]. It was an amazing experience, I loved it.

“I got picked there initially because Owen was injured. I played a lot there because of his injury. The more time I had in the saddle, the more I was comfortable. 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 here's some games which I'll remember for the rest of my career.”

There were plenty of difficult moments along the way and Lancaster doesn’t try to hide how hard it was to see his father struggle. Unsurprisingly, he also copped some of the flak.

‘I knew my dad wasn’t happy’

“There were some ridiculously tough times,” he said. “I felt like I took a lot of responsibility for it. 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. It was tough. I took a lot of responsibility. Probably the hardest game was the Toulon away game. I put everything into that game and we lost again. You could just see the pressure. I was just broken after that game. It was definitely tough times, but definitely good learning experiences.”

“For me, the proudest thing I found was that I was still getting picked. There was almost this 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.”

Father and son will be up against each other this season in the URC after Stuart was named head coach of Connacht. Lancaster junior, who began his career with local club Leeds Tykes before moving on to Leicester and then Ealing, is looking forward to the challenge of a new league and also, perhaps, an international call-up.

How he’s Scottish qualified

Dad Stuart may be a former England head coach but he played age-grade rugby for Scotland, qualifying through his mother from Dumfries. Dan played for Scotland U18s and then England U20s and the pull of a potential Scotland cap was part of the attraction of joining Glasgow.

“Yes, for sure. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't,” said Lancaster who has had conversations with Gregor Townsend. “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, coaches and making the most of it if I get a chance.”

He has spoken with Gregor Townsend and the national coach said he was unlucky not to make the Scotland squad for the summer tour. Lancaster knows he has to prove himself with Glasgow before he can think of Scotland.

“I've not done anything yet. We've only played one pre-season game [a defeat at Bath at the weekend]. We've got another one on Friday [at home to Northampton], 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 just need to get my head down here. I'm still writing calls down on my hand! I'm still playing catch-up.”

His hand is indeed scrawled with instructions but you get the impression he is a quick learner and he certainly seems at home at Scotstoun.

“Glasgow reminds me of Leeds,” he said. “Everyone's been welcoming, the lads have been great, I’ve been getting to know the coaches, so now it’s just transferring it to the pitch and hopefully using the pre-season games to kick on into the season.”

It may not be Paris but Lancaster seems settled.