I WON’T BE HIS NEW DIRECTOR OF RUGBY

IT appears the Rugby Football Union’s crude ‘money no object’ search for a ‘super coach’ to revive England will result in the appointment of Eddie Jones. If that is the case, I will be delighted for him. I do, however, wish the RFU’s CEO, Ian Ritchie, had taken his time and considered some of the homegrown Premiership coaches — in particular Rob Baxter at Exeter, Northampton’s Jim Mallinder and Dean Ryan at Worcester — who I believe could do the job. Those coaches are now suffering from the RFU learning the wrong lessons from the last four years under Stuart Lancaster, and Ritchie’s insistence that they would only consider coaches with a proven international record — that is, they were only going to look overseas. That smells of a quick fix to save their own backsides. I just wish somebody at the RFU would have the spine to say ‘Sorry we got it all badly wrong’ before we move on. There is also now, finally, a suggestion that a director of rugby role will be added, something many have been advocating for years. Some people are linking me with that role but I can say categorically here and now that I would not take any such position under these circumstances. It is not that I would or wouldn’t have chosen Eddie as head coach. I may well have done. The point is that a director of rugby must be accountable. The appointments will have been made the wrong way round. When you start with a blank sheet, the director of rugby is the first decision you make. He then leads the search for a head coach who he feels is best suited to the job and with whom he believes he can work the most closely with. Now, if anybody comes in as director of rugby, he is immediately off the hook because Eddie won’t have been his appointment. I actually thought the RFU had appointed a director of rugby in 2006 when Rob Andrew arrived but apparently that is not what he does. At the RFU there is a director for everything else; finance, marketing, legal, communications — but not a director of rugby. You couldn’t make it up.