COTTER SET TO RETURN TO FRANCE WITH MONTPELLIER

SCOTLAND head coach Vern Cotter is set to return to French club rugby with Montpellier when his contract ends next June. Current Montpellier boss Jake White is leaving at the end of the season and club president Mohed Altrad has put Cotter at the top of his list of possible replacements. The 54-year-old Kiwi forged his reputation as a top-class coach in the Top14 with Clermont Auvergne before taking over the Scotland job in the summer of 2014. He still has a home in France and Sportsmail understands he would be keen to make a return there after he is replaced by Gregor Townsend. Cotter was in charge of Clermont for eight years, leading them to their first Top 14 title in 2010. He also took the club into the 2013 European Champions Cup final where they lost by a single point to a Jonny Wilkinson-inspired Toulon. Since it became known Cotter (below) was leaving Scotland, there has been interest from a number of clubs in France and others in his native New Zealand. Indeed, Toulon considered bringing him into the backroom staff of under-pressure head coach Diego Dominguez, but, because Cotter was legally obliged to see out the final year of his contract with Scotland, the job was given to ex-Bath coach Mike Ford instead. Montpellier are ready to sit and wait for Cotter until the end of the season, allowing White to see out the final year of his contract and avoiding a compensation payment. Although White has taken the club into third place in the Top 14 this season, a clash of personalities with Altrad has made his departure inevitable. Meanwhile, Eddie Jones could be given the option to continue as the England head coach beyond 2019 as the RFU appear willing to alter their plan

to fast- track an English successor. The Australian has recorded nine successive victories since he replaced Stuart Lancaster late last year. His appointment was made on the basis that he would retire from his post after the next World Cup in 2019. However, his employers are open to the possibility of that scenario being revised. Asked yesterday whether Jones’ departure in three years’ time was ‘set in stone’, RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie said: ‘That’s certainly the contract and the discussion we had. ‘I think he wanted to go and watch cricket in Barbados. ‘I think that was the phrase he used! So it’s up to him. ‘Who can tell what happens over the next three years or so?’