Eddie Jones appointed England head coach by RFU

Australian Eddie Jones has been appointed as the first foreign coach of the England rugby team on a contract taking him through the 2019 World Cup, the Rugby Football Union said on Friday.

He said: “The opportunity to take the reins in possibly the world’s most high profile worldwide rugby job doesn’t come along every day however, and I feel fortunate to be given the opportunity”.

Former England captain Steve Borthwick, who was Jones’s forwards coach for Japan, has just started a new assistant coach role with English club Bristol but will probably be approached.

As for England, he said in an interview recently: “He (Lancaster) doesn’t look 100 per cent sure of exactly how he wants England to play – you can see that from his different selections”.

“You’ve got all the money in the world and all the players and you’ve still got no idea how to play the game”.

Chris Robshaw Robshaw’s position not only as captain, but certainly as a No 7, is in grave peril, with Jones very clear on that in the recent World Cup.

“I know what Eddie is after and numerous players who represented England at the World Cup are not the sort Eddie would pick”.

Brian Ashton, who coached England to the 2007 World Cup Final, also expressed his dismay at the lack of a home-grown alternative.

The shake-up at Twickenham is likely to result in the departure of Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Mike Catt, Stuart Lancaster’s lieutenants whose fates are to be decided by Jones.

“You always have a bit of a view when you’re outside the tent”, he said.

He will be announced to the media at a press conference later today and will begin his job in December, with his first game set to be the RBS 6 Nations encounter against Scotland on February 6.

Cape Town – The Stormers will employ an attacking game style in next year’s Super Rugby competition, new coach Eddie Jones has promised.

“I have already had contact from a few big-name coaches and I will, once again, look both internally and externally before continuing to plot the way ahead for Western Province Rugby and the Stormers”, Smal said on Friday (Saturday NZT). Given that Stuart Lancaster is a former PE master, this analogy may not fill England fans with much hope.

In a further development, former South Africa coach Jake White ruled himself out of contention to fill any position at Twickenham after declaring his future belongs to Montpellier.

Indeed, RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie moved to allay concerns that the English talent pool of coaches was not up to the national job.

Of the top 20 ranked teams with a coach now in place, half come from southern hemisphere sides and just one northern hemisphere coach is at a top 10 side (Guy Noves at France). When asked this week if he could talk about his new role he responded quickly – as he generally does – and said to call him at 5.30 a.m!