At the Rugby Football Union (RFU) they like a project. Planning for a successor to Eddie Jones was known as “Project Everest” while the Six Nations’ move to aggregate broadcasting rights was billed as “Project Light” and it does not take a degree in management-speak to figure out who came up with that.
As Steve Borthwick’s backroom staff dwindles almost by the day, you suspect those in power at Twickenham will be trying to come up with another. Despite promising strides taken by England during the Six Nations and smaller steps on the summer tour of New Zealand, the Rugby Football Union again finds itself in a state of disarray. Project A Sense Of Calm? Outwardly maybe but there will be concern that the seams are splitting as the RFU and the Premiership prepare to unveil the new Professional Game Partnership (PGP) next month.
The departure of Aled Walters as head of strength and conditioning was a huge blow, so popular was he with the players. It was compounded by the fact another long-serving strength and conditioning coach — Tom Tombleson — had already left, exacerbated because one of the most significant aspects of the PGP is that it gives England greater say over their players’ strength and conditioning, and magnified because Walters has been poached by Ireland.
It can be explained on grounds that Walters’ wife is Irish, he spent six years with Munster and the pull of working with Andy Farrell proved too great. He was among the favourites for the top strength and conditioning job on the British and Irish Lions tour next year and is a shoo-in now. But the news of Felix Jones’s resignation over the weekend cannot be described as anything other than a disaster.
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Jones does not appear to have a job lined up, he just doesn’t want to be England’s defence coach any more. It is unclear if he ever did — the suggestion being he agreed to join Borthwick’s staff to run the attack before Kevin Sinfield’s demotion to skills coach saw Jones diverted to defence — but the impact he had in a short time was marked.
Jones is among the most highly rated coaches around and introduced a blitz system — so successful during his time with South Africa — that endured a few teething problems in the Six Nations but is already bearing fruit. Players were stunned by his attention to detail but the fact he feels compelled to follow Walters, with whom he is particularly close, out the door raises awkward questions about Borthwick’s working environment and a significant one as to where England go next. The RFU is, in other words, scrambling.
The temptation will be to task Nigel Redman, the union’s team performance director, to find a solution. As part of Project Everest, Redman is said to have interviewed 67 coaches when Borthwick was the first choice all along — he is nothing if not thorough — and chief executive Bill Sweeney would love to promote from within the building, or at least from the Premiership, as means to trumpet the success of the pathway systems. It would be the classic corporate response but now is not the time to know the meaning of Project Zeus.
Instead, the answer has been staring the RFU in the face for the best part of 20 years. It was in 2006 that Shaun Edwards, who collected 37 major winners’ medals playing rugby league, was first approached to join England by Andy Robinson, who was then head coach. He turned it down, deciding he was not ready, that he needed to be in a club job that occupied him daily while he was grieving the death of his brother. Five years later he left Wasps and joined Warren Gatland’s Wales full-time with England’s interest lukewarm and an offer to run their Saxons side hardly befitting a man of his talents. It has been a common theme and while Sweeney saw fit to meet Edwards for a stroll along the Thames in 2021, no job offer was forthcoming.
Nonetheless, Edwards, now 57, is repeatedly on record saying that working for England appeals. He is a proud English man, a proven winner and practically invented the blitz defence. Gatland says he came up with the idea at Wasps but Edwards, his right-hand man at the time, recalls he had been thinking on similar lines and, regardless, it was the Wiganer who implemented it.
His contract with the French federation runs until the 2027 World Cup but Sweeney should be doing all he can to prise Edwards out of it. He would not come cheap and the RFU is struggling to find the money for the 25 hybrid contracts, worth £160,000 (€189,000) per player, to be introduced as part of the PGP, at a cost of £33 million a year. That said, the union will likely be due compensation for Walters and Jones, assuming he does not work the 12-month notice period his contract stipulates. Selling the naming rights to Twickenham has also swollen the coffers and Edwards’ release from his role with France should be secured at any cost.
On Borthwick’s appointment he repeatedly used the word “clarity” and providing it is among Edwards’ greatest strengths. Indeed, he stole the show during the Six Nations’ Full Contact documentary with his crystal clear message to his players not to play too much in their own half. “Quand nous avons le ballon dans notre camp, kick the f**king ball.”
He also has a CV and reputation to assuage doubts that will be circulating in the playing squad blindsided by Jones’s resignation, and, crucially, Edwards’ appointment would ensure Borthwick does not have to rip up England’s defensive strategy and start again.
England are now looking for a seventh defence coach since Eddie Jones showed Farrell the door shortly after his arrival. When Paul Gustard departed in 2018 Jones tried, and failed, to get Farrell back and the revolving door has kept on spinning ever since. Sinfield arrived to great fanfare but he was learning on the job and rumours of his exit began circulating during England’s woeful World Cup warm-up campaign last year. After the tournament, he opted to stay temporarily, but as a skills coach, and it remains to be seen what the future holds.
That he, Walters and Jones — the three most significant coaching arrivals under Borthwick — have all seen fit to depart is troubling. Borthwick has done much to steer England away from the chaos that began to reign under his predecessor but it is worth remembering his formative coaching years, his first six in the role full-time, were under Eddie Jones.
It is worth pointing out, too, that Walters, Sinfield, Jones, Richard Wigglesworth, Tom Harrison and Nick Evans are all of similar age to Borthwick or younger. Appointing someone of Edwards’ experience would be all the more welcome, then, and could go a significant way to resolving the mess England find themselves in. Call it Project Common Sense.
