Some players are comfortable blowing their own trumpet. Not Will Stuart, even after a memorable year lifting multiple trophies with the British & Irish Lions and Bath. Ask the self-effacing prop whether he might have earned himself a few more media and commercial opportunities and he genuinely looks horrified. “It’s not really for me,” he murmurs. “I struggle with it in general. Maybe it’s a mental block.”
Welcome to the endearingly quirky world of England’s most left-field squad member. Did you know that Stuart’s paternal grandfather – also the son of the Bishop of Uganda – used to play No 8 in the same rugby team as Idi Amin, who featured as a lock? Or that his maternal great-grandfather was shot down in 1918 by the Red Baron before going on to act in, among other films, the Lavender Hill Mob? Then there is the incongruous fact that, as a kid, England’s 50-cap front-row hulk played the flute. “It was bullied out of me when I was 13. I wish I’d kept it on.” And all this before we both shift our gaze down past his meaty thighs to the eclectic range of tattoos on his left foot. Among the designs is a small cartoon lion and an image of his big-haired teammate Alfie Barbeary, reminders of his summer exploits in Australia and Bath’s Premiership title success. Barbeary is apparently thrilled. “The Lions put a picture of it on their social media page so Alfie’s claiming that, by extension, that means he’s been on a Lions tour.”
