Cockerill joins revamped England to help World Cup push
RICHARD COCKERILL joined Eddie Jones’ England rugby set-up as forwards coach yesterday, alongside an Australian rugby league guru. After the departure of defence coach John Mitchell to Wasps and with Aussie skills coach Jason Ryles unable to link up with England due to Covid restrictions, Jones has revamped his team two years ahead of the World Cup in France. As Sportsmail revealed last month, 50-year-old Cockerill, the former England hooker as well as ex-Leicester and Edinburgh coach, joins to fire up the pack alongside Matt Proudfoot. Jones also raided his homeland for defence coach Anthony Seibold — a 46-year-old Australian who most recently led the Brisbane Broncos in rugby league Down Under.
Jones, who took attack coach Martin Gleeson from Wasps last month too, said: ‘We’re two years from the World Cup so we wanted to freshen up our coaching team and get the right people in place for where we want to go — which is to win the World Cup. ‘We’ve added Richard to the team to work with Matt to create a dominant forward pack. ‘He’s a former England player, has great coaching experience and comes in as a well-rounded, mature, driven English coach. ‘Anthony is a coach that I have had a relationship with since 2019 and have followed his career closely. He is a good coach and thinks deeply about the game.’ England have also confirmed they will meet in London for a mini-camp from September 26-28, then will prepare for November Tests against Tonga, Australia and South Africa by training in Jersey in late October.