MY ACCOUNT
Eddie Jones’ successor as England head coach will be appointed ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup, with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) targeting an Englishman for the job.
Australian boss Jones has spent six and a half years in charge of England and is under contract until after next year’s showpiece event in France.
The 62-year-old had been under increasing pressure following another disappointing Six Nations showing for England, who finished with two wins from five matches.
However, the RFU this week assured Jones that his job is safe for now, though the former Japan coach was warned that nobody is “bulletproof”.
Providing a further update on the position on Saturday, RFU performance director Conor O’Shea suggested a new coach could work alongside Jones at the World Cup before taking over.
“The plan for us will be to appoint that coach before summer 2023,” O’Shea said. “Whether that’s embedding them into the programme or taking a helicopter view, that’s a discussion to be had.
“We would like to think we will be appointing them in the lead up to 2023. We have so many top English coaches who are in a great position.
“Eddie has worked with Steve [Borthwick], Neal [Hatley], Gussy [Paul Gustard]. You look across the Premiership and then you see the quality of people overseas. I want them to be English and I believe [they] should be.”
He added: “The rationale is we need to appoint so we have got time to embed the new coaching team and allow them to hit the ground running. Eddie is fully aware and knows what we want to do.
“There will be some people who say that will disturb the World Cup prep because people will be looking over their shoulder.
“[Fabien] Galthie was appointed before the 2019 World Cup and it’s the right thing to do because we need to get ready for the 2024 Six Nations.”
The RFU’s focus on a homegrown coach would rule the likes of Warren Gatland, Steve Hansen and Rassie Erasmus out of the running, but chief executive Bill Sweeney is confident the right approach is being taken.
“We believe we’ve got such a wealth of English coaches in the game,” he said. “As a leading rugby nation we should be developing English coaches and an English style of play.
“That should be long-term and therefore the preference would be to have an English setup as far as I’m concerned.
“We’ve got a war room that’s got every English coach you can imagine – based here and based internationally. We’ve got an advanced succession plan in place.”
