English coaching ticket for 6N named

wixfjord

http://planetrugby.co.uk/story/0,25883,16024_7362623,00.html

Fairly steady hands there. Don't know much about Lancaster.
Mike Ford gone.

The RFU have confirmed that Stuart Lancaster, Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell will coach England during the upcoming Six Nations.

Lancaster was on Thursday appointed as Interim Head Coach for England's championship title defence, which begins in February against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Lancaster - the RFU Head of Elite Player Development and England Saxons Head Coach - will be assisted by former Lions and England prop Rowntree, who will coach the forwards, and Farrell, who will be seconded from Aviva Premiership Champions Saracens as backs coach.

Rowntree is the only member of England's senior World Cup management team to be retained. The former Leicester prop worked as a scrum specialist under Martin Johnson but he will now take charge of the pack as a whole.

Lancaster and Rowntree were widely expected to be named but Farrell's inclusion as backs coach comes as a slight surprise. He is set to split his duties between club and country.

As expected, there are no positions for either John Wells or Mike Ford, who were key members of Johnson's staff.

The RFU aim to have full-time appointments in place for the June tour to South Africa.

"All three of us are really excited about the opportunity ahead," said Lancaster.

"Andrew has done an outstanding job at Saracens and the Saxons; Graham has enormous respect from the players and has vast experience and I am confident that we can work well together as a coaching team.

"The World Cup was enormously disappointing but we shouldn't forget that England won 10 out of 13 games this year and a Six Nations title. We have a promising group of players to go forward with and the challenge for Graham, Andy and myself is to get the best out of them."

RFU Acting Chief Executive Stephen Brown said it was important that an Interim Head Coach was appointed as soon as possible in accordance with the RFU's commitment to follow the recommendations made by the Professional Game Board.

"Stuart is not only an experienced coach but his role as Head of Elite Player Development puts him at the forefront of producing international players," said Brown.

"He will be well supported by Graham, with all his experience with England and the British Lions and Andy, who has helped Saracens become one of the leading clubs in the country and we are grateful to them for allowing Andy to join us on a temporary basis. We believe this coaching team is the right one to collectively take England forward in the short term."

PhatPiggins

Farrell is a good choice he's a no nonsense coach to the extreme. Rowantree seems to be the only coach to avoid critiscism so he must be doing something right. Lancaster is just the fall guy if/when they have a poor 6N's

its_phil

English rugby is such a joke,they have all these stupid unnecessary positions.Im delighted to see the old coach system back bar Rob Andrews

Martin Johnson a manager, why would you have a manager in charge of the team. I know McNaughton is a manager but I dont think he was a manager in the same sense as Johnson. Brian Smith, attack coach (call it a backs coach)? Rob Andrews head of Elite blah blah. What the hell is that? Why couldnt one of the many coaches do that?!

Have your Head Coach, Backs, forward, Defence, Scrum and your A coach. Not all these crappy political jobs. The coach positions at the world cup sounded like an NFL team, rather than a rugby team.

cgpg5

With the appointment of Andy Farrell, the six nations should also see the inclusion of Owen Farrell who is clearly the long term prospect at 10 a wonderful talent, it is clear Flood is mediocre at best and Cipriani is unlikely to cop on any time soon..

its_phil

cgpg5 wrote: »

With the appointment of Andy Farrell, the six nations should also see the inclusion of Owen Farrell who is clearly the long term prospect at 10 a wonderful talent, it is clear Flood is mediocre at best and Cipriani is unlikely to cop on any time soon..

Owen Farrell couldnt even make the England U20 team at outhalf last year, never mind England this year. George Ford is the future at outhalf.

thomond2006

There's gonna be a lot of change in the squad I reckon, there's plenty of old guys that will be put out to pasture. Lancaster will have a decent knowledge of the youngsters having coached them while Saxons boss. There's also the RFU dictat that was announced before the World Cup that they wouldn't pick players who are based outside England. I still they will pick Wilkinson in the squad and have him training in the squad at least.

This was their World Cup squad,
I've crossed out those who are either retired from playing or retired from England,
those in blue are playing outside England,
and those in green are in england, available for selection but probably won't be around for the next World Cup

Backs (13):
Delon Armitage (London Irish), Ben Foden (Northampton Saints).Chris Ashton (Northampton Saints), Mark Cueto (Sale Sharks),

Matt Banahan (Bath). Shontayne Hape (London Irish), Mike Tindall (Gloucester), Manusamoa Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers).

Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers), Jonny Wilkinson (Toulon).

Joe Simpson (London Wasps), Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens), Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers).

Forwards: (17):
Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers), Alex Corbisiero (London Irish), Andrew Sheridan (Sale Sharks), Matt Stevens (Saracens), David Wilson (Bath).

Dylan Hartley (Northampton Saints),Lee Mears (Bath), Steve Thompson (London Wasps),

Louis Deacon (Leicester Tigers),Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints), Tom Palmer (Stade Français), Simon Shaw (London Wasps).

Tom Croft (Leicester Tigers), Nick Easter (Harlequins), James Haskell (Ricoh Black Rams), Lewis Moody (Bath), Tom Wood (Northampton Saints)

ormond lad

Fords departure to be announced in the morning. not that surprising an announcement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/dec/16/mike-ford-england-rfu
Mike Ford on the verge of England exit with the RFU

The departure of Mike Ford from the England coaching staff is expected to be concluded with the Rugby Football Union on Friday morning, ending his five-and-a-half-year stint as defence coach
"I have got no regrets and bear no hard feelings towards the RFU," Ford told the Daily Telegraph. "I hope England go out and win the Six Nations. I have spoken to Stuart [Lancaster, England's interim head coach] and Andy Farrell to offer up information I have on Scotland from the World Cup, if they would like to sit down and talk.
"It is a watershed now for England. You still need some experience in there, and I think we can win the Six Nations, but my advice to Stuart would be to blood some new kids. International level is three or four levels above the Premiership. The management need to identify and develop players who they think will reach that level by the 2015 World Cup."
Ford has worked with England since 2006, undertaking two World Cups. His departure follows that of the former England team manager, Martin Johnson, after a disappointing quarter-final exit to France at the 2011 World Cup which was followed by an array of damaging allegations from within the England camp.