It feels unusual to talk about a ‘breakthrough year’ for a player in their late 20s – but not when discussing Will Stuart.
The Bath and England tighthead has been a consistently strong performer in the front row for several years but has kicked on to another level in the last 12 months, becoming an integral figure for club and country.
Selection for his first British & Irish Lions Tour is his reward and as he prepares to embark on the summer of a lifetime, it’s time to take stock and learn more about his journey to get here…
ROWING OR RUGBY?
If things had gone in a different direction for a teenage Will Stuart, it might have been rowing rather than rugby at which he represented his country.
Having begun his rugby journey at Andover and Salisbury, where he started at fly-half and centre before moving into the pack, Stuart was then educated at Radley College and split his time between water and turf.
Tom George and Ollie Wynne-Griffith, both double Olympic medallists as part of Team GB, were among his contemporaries and Stuart – who credits the school’s rugby coach, Tony Jackson, as his biggest mentor growing up – was left with a decision to make.
“I got to aged 15, 16, when I was in the Wasps Academy, and there was a bit of a crossroads,” he told Rugby World.
“Rowing wanted me to lose weight and Wasps wanted me to put a bit on. I was using rowing for fitness so it was an easy choice really. It’s a tough and unrelenting sport.”
With his decision made, Stuart had his heart set on reaching the top and, in doing so, continuing a family tradition in the oval ball game.
His grandfather was once rumoured to have played internationally for Uganda but though that was later revealed to be false, he did line up in the same forward pack as the brutally repressive dictator Idi Amin.
Worldliness runs in the Stuart clan – his father is an EU diplomat – and it wasn’t too long until the prop was seeing the world playing the sport he loves.
VALUABLE LOAN SPELLS
As is often the way with young prospects, Stuart learned his trade in the blood and thunder of England’s lower divisions.
He spent time at National One sides Blackheath and Moseley, as well as with Nottingham in the Championship, which proved invaluable in helping his transition to senior Premiership rugby.
“It’s a tough learning curve as a young prop but it’s good for me,” he told The Rugby Paper at the time.
“You can get away with just being strong at school but there’s a lot more to it when you start playing against men.
“It’s not easy to take when you’re on the back foot but I try to keep looking at the bigger picture. It’ll all pay off in the end and as long as I feel like I’m improving, I don’t mind the struggle.”
Around the same time, he was beginning to make an international mark. Stuart came off the bench in the final of the 2016 World Rugby Under-20 Championship as England beat Ireland to lift the trophy.
BATH SWITCH
Stuart’s Wasps debut came later the same year and he went on to make 32 appearances for the club before departing for Bath ahead of the 2019/20 season, citing his new team’s ability to develop young players as key to his decision.
It paid off almost instantly as his appearances with his new club caught the eye of Eddie Jones, who drafted him into the senior England fold and gave Stuart his debut in the 2020 Six Nations.
Stuart’s bow came in the Round 1 defeat against France but England bounced back and the prop also featured in the victory over Italy which secured his country the title.
He stayed in and around the international set-up and played an unlikely role in England’s remarkable escapology act against New Zealand in the 2022 Autumn Nations Series.
The hosts were trailing 25-6 with 10 minutes to go but two tries from Stuart, either side of one from Freddie Steward, saw the game end all square. They were the Bath man’s first international tries – and proof he was starting to feel at home.
RAISING THE BAT
Stuart went to the 2023 World Cup, in which he featured four times as England finished third, and has become impossible to dislodge since.
He brought up a significant milestone during the 2025 Six Nations, winning his 50th cap for his country in the Round 5 win over Wales and even marking the occasion with a try as his side ran out record-breaking 68-14 winners in Cardiff.
Speaking during the Championship, Stuart opened up to The Guardian about the patience he required on his road to establishing himself – with 26 of his appearances coming from the bench.
“I’ve had opportunities over the past few years and I haven’t grasped them,” he said.
“I’ve been playing on and off for the last five years, off the bench for the first few years then had a few chances to start and coming away from the last World Cup I’ve just tried to keep my head down and do my job well.
“Obviously no one is really going to care if I’m throwing 30‑metre skip passes if I’m getting drilled in the scrum.
“So I just do my job consistently well and keep my head below the parapet where you can’t get shot.”
The military metaphor is apt for a player who spent the Six Nations reading Tom Holland's Rubicon, all about the Roman Empire, and a biography of Napoleon Bonaparte.
And he was getting his hands dirty while the Lions squad was being announced at the O2 Arena – shunning a watchalong in favour of doing DIY on his house.
“I got a message from England’s social media team straight away asking if we could go to a Zoom link but I had a mask on, covered in dust,” he told The Telegraph.
It is another on-brand reaction for Stuart, who got engaged the following week to cap a memorable time on and off the field.
He has, after all, described himself as ‘a hermit’ who enjoys his tranquil life ‘in a little village outside of Bath’.
But in Australia this summer, the quiet man at the front of the scrum could really make a name for himself.
