Eddie Jones: The RFU’s potential contenders to replace England head coach | Rugby Union News

March 31, 2022 admin

Steve Borthwick, Rob Baxter and Andy Farrell have been mentioned. We take a look at the potential candidates to replace Eddie Jones...

We look through the potential contenders who the RFU could turn to after Eddie Jones leaves his role as England head coach…

Listening to the noises coming out of the RFU in recent weeks, it appears they are aiming for two key things in the replacement of Jones: for the next England head coach to be English, and potentially for them to come into the set-up and shadow Jones before his departure.

“We’ve got an advanced succession plan in place,” RFU CEO Bill Sweeney has said. “We’ve got a war room that’s got every English coach you can imagine – based here and based internationally. It’s got contracts and all sorts of things. There’s a very definite plan.

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RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney insisted that England’s Six Nations campaign was simply ‘not good enough’

“We believe we’ve got such a wealth of English coaches in the game. 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 set-up as far as I’m concerned.”

Three years ago, France headed to the 2019 World Cup in Japan still under Jacques Brunel, after another poor Six Nations performance.

Les Bleus’ response was to announce that Fabien Galthie would replace Brunel after the World Cup, and that he would work under Brunel at the tournament before taking charge. It’s something Director of Performance Rugby for the RFU Conor O’Shea admits appeals to them.

“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.

Conor O'Shea, the RFU's Director of Performance Rugby, envisions a transition as France did to bring in Fabien Galthie pre-World Cup 2019

“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. 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.

“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.

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Sweeney says no head coach is indispensable in response to backing Jones until now

“There will be some people who say that will disturb the World Cup prep because people will be looking over their shoulder. Galthié 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.”

So, with all that in mind, who are the likely replacements?

Rob Baxter, Exeter Chiefs director of rugby

The headline English candidate to take over, it would seem, is Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter.

The 51-year-old guided the Devon-based club from the Championship to European champions in 10 years, and is on a current run of steering them to six successive Premiership finals.

Baxter has done this largely with a core of players that have come through the academy at Exeter, and with this season’s performance by the club not at the level of previous years, it may be time for him to move on and into the Test game.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter has been one of the most successful coaches in Europe in recent years

Concerns over Baxter may be that of the six finals made, the Chiefs only won two of them, plus Exeter is literally all he’s ever known.

He played second row for the club for 14 years, captained them for a decade, moved from playing into a forwards coach role, then as acting head coach and finally director of rugby between 2009-2022.

He earned promotion from the Championship in his very first campaign and has never looked back, while he is also someone who almost always keeps a calm demeanour, good media relationships, and works positively with players.

Current England internationals Sam Simmonds, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Henry Slade and Jack Nowell have all come through into professional rugby under Baxter, while others whom Jones has failed to give real chances to such as Joe Simmonds, Tom O’Flaherty, Harry Williams and Alex Hepburn are players Baxter knows extremely well.

In March 2013, Baxter joined the England coaching team for the summer tour to Argentina and Uruguay, but that aside he has no experience outside of Exeter.

“I would be happy to have a chat about what the role is, how they see it working and what their plans and ambitions are,” Baxter said of the England post this week.

“Unless you know what it is, it’s hard to say yes or no to anything. At the same time, I’m not looking for another job! I’m very happy here.

Baxter said this week more needs to be revealed about the England role to potential English coaches

“If you could ask every director of rugby or head coach across the Premiership, we’d probably all say the same thing: ‘we don’t really know what the job is’.

“If you look across the Premiership we’re all in slightly different places. Me personally now, I probably haven’t done any real, solid, on-field coaching for two years.

“What role is it? Is it a DoR-type role? Someone who brings in a coaching team and is prepared to work with those guys? Is it an on-field guy, blowing a whistle and directing how the team are actually playing?

“What do they want to see? Then you might genuinely see guys saying ‘right, that’s a role for me’ or ‘that’s not a role for me’.

“That’s part of the issue – is it that they want to find the guy first and he fits into a role he is comfortable with and is good at, or is it that they will say ‘we want this kind of person and this is what the role has to be’? That would clarify the position for most of the English coaches.”

Steve Borthwick, Leicester Tigers Head Coach & former England forwards coach (2015-2020)

Another former second row, Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick worked with Jones for five years in the England set-up as forwards coach, and a further three years as assistant coach in Japan before that.

Leicester Tigers head coach Steve Borthwick has done a superb job at the club since taking charge in 2020

Having taken charge of the Tigers in 2020, Borthwick has overseen a huge turnaround at the club, transforming them from Premierships strugglers to pace-setters at the top of the table.

As such, his is a name very much linked to the England post.

The Leicester job is the first head coaching gig in his career, however, so the 42-year-old would be thrown in very green.

Borthwick acted as England forwards coach in their run to the 2019 World Cup final in Japan

Borthwick, who picked up 57 Test caps as a player between 2001 and 2010, recently said he has “enough on my plate” at Leicester, but if England did come calling, it would be hard for him to say no.

Richard Cockerill, England forwards coach

From Eddie Jones’s previous forwards coach to the current one, former England hooker Richard Cockerill is another name linked.

The 51-year-old has built up 17 years as a coach within professional rugby since retirement as a player, moving as Leicester Tigers hooker to forwards coach (2005-2009) and then into the Director of Rugby position, which he held for eight years between 2009-2017.

Having won two Premiership titles with Leicester near the start of his time in charge (2009, 2010), Cockerill departed Tigers in 2017 and via a short stint as Toulon head coach in France, next landed the Edinburgh head coaching role, which he held between 2017-2021.

After leaving the Scottish capital, Cockerill succeeded Borthwick as Jones’s England forwards coach in September 2021.

Richard Cockerill is the current English forwards coach, having been appointed in September 2021

He earned 27 England caps as player but was dropped from the side after criticising Clive Woodward in his book entitled In Your Face.

Alex Sanderson, Sale Sharks Director of Rugby

A coach highly regarded in English rugby, Alex Sanderson is a name that has been suggested in some quarters, such is his successful body of work.

Between 2008 and 2021, Sanderson was part of a Saracens coaching ticket which won all around them, developing a fearsome defence and set-piece.

Since January 2021, Sanderson has been the top man at Sale Sharks, and so like Borthwick, his experience in a DoR/head coach role is minimal to this point.

Sale Sharks director of rugby Alex Sanderson is highly thought of but in his first season as a DoR/head coach

That is something likely to work against his name for the position, and when asked about it this week, Sanderson name-checked two former Saracens colleagues: current head coach Mark McCall, and Ireland head coach Andy Farrell.

“I think Mark is ready for it now. He’s got my vote, he’d be great for it. If Ireland don’t want him, maybe they could do a swapsies between Andy Farrell and Mark! I don’t know how those things work,” Sanderson said.

“They’re both really good coaches. Any international team would be lucky to have them.”

With an intention for the next England coach to be English, however, and also for them to be appointed and involved pre the 2023 World Cup in France, both McCall – an Irishman – and Farrell appear to have been ruled out.

Jim Mallinder, Scotland performance director

A former England academy coach (2004-2007), England Saxons coach (2006-2007) and England performance pathway coach (2018-19), current Scotland Performance Director Jim Mallinder has had his foot in the door with the RFU a number of times in his career to date.

As well as his experience within the RFU structure, Mallinder coached Northampton Saints for a decade between 2007-2017, and Sale Sharks between 2001-2004.

Jim Mallinder departed the RFU structure in 2019 to become Scotland's performance director

In his club coaching career he picked up a Challenge Cup success with Sale (2002), as well as Premiership (2014) and Challenge Cup (2009, 2014) successes with Northampton, suffering further Premiership (2013) and European Cup (2011) final defeats too.

As someone entwined with all things Scotland rugby these days though, the 53-year-old is highly unlikely to be approached.

Andy Farrell, Ireland head coach

Perhaps one of the coaches England would most love to have at present is Ireland’s Andy Farrell, who is achieving great things across the Irish Sea, both in terms of results and style of play.

Andy Farrell is thriving as head coach of Ireland at present

As mentioned above, the fact Sweeney and O’Shea envision a coach being brought in to monitor/join the set-up ahead of the 2023 Rugby World Cup would seem to preclude Farrell, but if things go pear-shaped in that plan, Farrell is someone they are likely to enquire about.

Now whether Farrell, who was England defence coach between 2011 and 2015 under Stuart Lancaster – also currently working in Ireland with Leinster – and left under a cloud after England’s disastrous 2015 home World Cup, would want to return to the RFU is another question.

Farrell departed English rugby under a cloud in 2015

Ireland presented Farrell his route back into the sport in 2016, joining as defence coach under Joe Schmidt, and his regard in the IRFU has only ever been enormously positive.

Handed the head coach role after Schmidt’s departure, Farrell has taken Ireland to a new level, winning a Triple Crown in the 2022 Six Nations, and destroying the All Blacks in November.

An outstanding defence coach with the British and Irish Lions in 2013 and 2017, Farrell’s standing is now that of a real top-level coach again, and he has a good thing going with Ireland at the moment.

Farrell has a good thing going in Ireland at the moment, alongside Paul O'Connell

Paul Gustard, Benetton assistant coach

A real outside bet, but worthy of inclusion as he was name-checked by O’Shea in recent times.

Gustard worked under Eddie Jones as England defence coach between 2016-18, and since then has worked at Harlequins as head coach (2018-2021) and now Benetton in Italy as an assistant.