England: RFU’s Bill Sweeney says an English coach would be the ideal Eddie Jones successor

Rugby Football Union’s chief executive Bill Sweeney believes an English coach would be favourite to take over from Eddie Jones after next year’s World Cup.

The planning for Jones‘ successor is already underway to have a clear idea of what the incoming management team would consist of and for that team to be in place for the 2024 Six Nations.

Sweeney was tight-lipped with names, but if the RFU does not consider international experience a prerequisite, it could open up the role to Englishmen, including Steve Borthwick, Rob Baxter and Richard Cockeril.

“We believe we’ve got such a wealth of English coaches in the game. As a leading rugby nation we should be developing English coaches and an English style of play,” Sweeney said.

“That should be long-term and therefore the preference would be to have an English set-up, as far as I’m concerned.

“There’s a very definite plan. We’ve got a war room that’s got every English coach you can imagine – based here and based internationally.

“It’s got contracts and all sorts of things. We’ve got an advanced succession plan in place.”

There is a clear understanding that Jones will not be extending his tenure into a ninth year and will leave after the World Cup in France.

“Eddie is fully aware and knows what we want to do,” RFU’s Conor O’Shea said.

“There will be some people who say that will disturb the World Cup prep because people will be looking over their shoulder, but Fabien Galthie was appointed France coach before the 2019 World Cup.

“It’s the right thing to do because we need to get ready for the 2024 Six Nations and the plan for us will be to appoint that coach before summer 2023.

“Whether that’s embedding them into the programme or taking a helicopter view, that’s a discussion