First, the appointments:
- John Mitchell to take over after the 2023 World Cup
- Louis Deacon to remain in post, but take charge till Mitchell’s delayed arrival.
- Lou Meadows, at present I/c Under 20s, to be attack coach.
- Sarah Hunter to take on a more extensive role as transition coach working with the senior women’s team and pathway programmes on forwards, breakdown and defensive systems.
- Charlie Hayter takes on the role of head of women’s performance, responsible for performance strategy and delivery. That is the third change of duties he has sustained in a few short years.
It means two of the four coaches will be women. That is one relief.
Reactions
As I said in yesterday’s piece, this choice is a backward step into who knows where? – a condemnation of all that English women’s rugby is meant to stand for.
Let’s first imagine the next World Cup final. It will be between the Red Roses and the Black Ferns, held at Twickenham in front of 82,000 people.
There will be one of two results: NZ will win; England will win.
If it’s the former, what good will it have done England Rugby to have placed a foreigner in charge of its destiny, only for him to fall down on the job?
If it’s the latter, what credit will be brought to the English camp when a Kiwi has had to be brought in to ensure success?
Next, it’s proved impossible to find any mention of Mitchell’s contribution to women’s rugby. As Simon Middleton has said on more than one occasion, the gap between coaching a women’s and a men’s side is considerable. You can set Wayne Smith as an example of how successful a top coach can be in assuming a new role in a very short time and succeeding.
Other examples are plentiful in their absence.
It’s true to say that players can be turned off by hearing the same old voice year after year. But how will the Red Roses react to hearing a Kiwi accent blasting at them, after the homely West Riding tones of Middleton? From now on it will be a game of ‘footy’ and a ‘tist’ match they must look forward to. Ah me.
A Question of Procedure
People have been upset by the delay in announcing the new name. Adding to the complexities is the question of the assistants. Normally the new boss would be given free rein to choose his or her own. Was that a reason for the delay? How does the RFU know that Mitchell and his new assistants will all see eye-to-eye? That is an essential for any successful national squad. Mitchell is said to speak his mind.
Is four the right and sensible number of coaches to appoint? You can argue that too many cooks spoil the broth – otherwise known as mixed messages – but the professional game has spawned so many specialisms that more experts need to be called in to help out.
If the new boss has not been given a free hand, will he be happy in his new job?
Conclusions
No English rugby coach, male or female, is deemed capable of leading the England team. That means the coaching system the RFU manages is inadequate.
We will never discover who and how many applied for the job; that’s not the way things are done. We don’t know who sat on the selection committee, which is probably just as well for them.
So we cannot know what assets they were looking for in coming to a final choice.
Did the RFU at least have the decency to respond to all the applications? That evidently didn’t happen to Giselle Mather on a previous occasion.
Kiwis will be laughing all the way to their next RWC win. Either way, they will have at least one hand on the trophy.
A Glance into the Future
The timetable for the new boss is even tighter than I had imagined. Since he won’t take office till after the coming RWC, he has even less time to place his imprint on the squad.
He now has the WXV that is due this autumn (in, we believe, Aotearoa). The Red Roses should be given a well deserved break before then, but there are still four rounds of the Allianz Premier League to be fought over in the immediate future. Will they take place without forcing Red Roses back into action? Middleton is no longer there to give the word. That would disappoint the fans, reduce the impact of the matches and annoy some head coaches with short fuses.
Perhaps the decision falls on Deacon’s shoulders.
Adding to the WXV, Mitchell will have the 2024 and 2025 Six Nations to continue sifting his squad. Then it’s headfirst into a home RWC. The expectations will be high, whatever the results of the WXV. (Only the Black Ferns and Les Bleues are likely to cause a blip there).
The 6N gives him, as it gave Middleton, the chance to experiment. Though other nations are improving visibly, only France go on giving the Red Roses a real battle. The stats that prove the point are these margins of victory in 2023: Scotland 51, Italy 63, Wales 56, Ireland 48.
The chasm set between them is signalled by Greg McWilliams’ ‘conversations’ with the IRFU. If, as seems possible, he stands down, one reaction is clear. Locals have sided with him, calling him a thoroughly fine coach and decent human being, but dragged down by the neglect of people placed in authority above him. Several wondered if anyone would wish to take on the job in the current circumstances.
With Niamh Briggs so close to the top of the coaching tree, what chance would she have of taking over, and what chance of reversing the downward trend Irish women’s rugby has suffered these past few years? The decision taken at Twickenham Towers doesn’t bode well for her.
if the present line-up of coaches remains the same next year, women will continue representing one-twelfth of the total 6N’s force.
Calendar
Worryingly the most important dates remain unknown.
1. Prem 15s, rounds 15-18, 13 May – 24 June
2. ’The host locations and dates for the tiers of the inaugural WXV competition will be revealed following the conclusion of the TikTok Women’s Six Nations.’ – World Rugby gives us the who and the what, but not the when or the where.
3. 6N 2024 March-April
4. 6N 2025 March-April
5. WRC 2025, dates unconfirmed
Choices, choices
One reason for the tiny number of post-6N retirements is the very presence of the WXV plus the short hop to that tenth RWC. Otherwise I suspect several more players might have bid a sad farewell.
Summary
I see this appointment as a thoroughly backward step for the Red Roses. Opinions of Mitchell’s coaching abilities are far too mixed to provide total confidence.
Appointing an overseas coach, though not the first, is a slap in the face for all the English coaches who have put in an anonymous application for the top job. Our commiserations.
