Brian Ashton remained England head coach on Wednesday but his position looked increasingly under threat after his bosses at the Rugby Football Union (RFU) authorized elite rugby director Rob Andrew to continue his talks regarding the appointment of a team manager and an extra coach.
However, according to an RFU statement, the future of the England coaching set-up is unlikely to be resolved until the end of next month at the earliest.
Although no-one was named specifically as a candidate for the role of manager, it has been widely reported in the British press that the RFU have been in talks with former England captain Martin Johnson about the new post in the national set-up.
After the best part of a day spent considering an "interim report" from Andrew the RFU Management Board issued a statement which "congratulated the England senior team in finishing second in the Six Nations, a significant improvement on previous years."
But the statement continued: "The Management Board accepted Rob Andrew's interim report and was unanimous in authorizing him to continue the discussions currently under way to strengthen the England team structure through the recruitment of a team manager and an additional specialist coach."
Ashton, 61, has made it clear ever since becoming England coach in 2006 he would like to have a manager to help with administrative duties but not someone who would reduce his authority in purely rugby matters.
England, despite losing to both eventual Grand Slam champions Wales and Scotland, finished second under Ashton in this season's Six Nations -- their best-placing since they completed the Grand Slam themselves in 2003 before inspirational captain Johnson lifted the World Cup later that year.
This came after an England team coached by Ashton defied many pundits to reach last year's World Cup final in Paris where they lost to South Africa.
Wednesday's statement said recommendations on a new manager and specialist coach appointments would be made to a meeting of Club England, the group that oversees Test matters, early next month.
They would then deliver "final recommendations to the RFU Management Board which will convene, as necessary, an additional meeting ahead of its scheduled meeting on the 30 April to consider these recommendations."
After the World Cup, Andrew recommended Ashton be kept on an "open" contract rather than be handed a deal that would take him through to the 2011 edition in New Zealand.
American rugby sevens star Ilona Maher is to join 15-a-side club Bristol next month in a bid to play in next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup, the English club announced on Monday. Maher, 28, helped the US to a bronze medal at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris and is the seven-a-side sport’s most popular player on social media. “This is a huge coup to be able to bring Ilona Maher to Bristol Bears on a short-term deal,” Bristol head coach Dave Ward said. “She is one of the biggest names in women’s sport, let alone rugby, and we believe she will
New Taipei Kings guard Jeremy Lin on Friday was named the Taiwan Professional Basketball League’s (TPBL) Player of the Month, the first domestic player to win the award, while the Hsinchu Toplus Lioneers are to welcome their third head coach in less than a year. Lin averaged 22 points, 5.4 rebounds and 6.6 assists over five games in October and last month, helping the Kings to second in the standings with a 4-2 record as of Friday. The Kings last night defeated the Lioneers 96-78 to move level with the top-of-the-table Formosa Dreamers (5-2), while in the night game, the New Taipei
LeBron James is in quite the shooting slump — especially from long distance, highlighted by his zero-for-four effort from three-point range for the Los Angeles Lakers in their 109-80 loss against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday. That return stretched the nearly-40-year-old’s skid to zero-for-19 from deep over his past four games. James’ birthday is on Dec. 30. After going four-for-16 from the floor overall with six of his team’s 20 turnovers for a season-low 10 points against the Timberwolves, James was asked to reflect on the Lakers reaching the quarter mark of their 2024-2025 schedule under rookie coach J.J. Redick at 12-9. “I
TO NO AVAIL: The Denver Nuggets’ Serbian center Nikola Jokic surpassed his 53-point performance in the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix The Washington Wizards withstood a 56-point explosion from Denver star Nikola Jokic to beat the Nuggets 122-113 on Saturday and snap their 16-game NBA losing streak. Jokic, who won his third NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award last season, posted a career scoring high — surpassing a 53-point performance in game four of the 2023 Western Conference semi-finals against Phoenix and a 50-point regular-season best against Sacramento in 2021. The Serbian big man added 16 rebounds and eight assists, but it was all to no avail as Washington, buoyed by 39 points from Jordan Poole, won for the first time
RSS