England without skills coach Ryles in Six Nations blow
England’s preparations for the Six Nations suffered a further blow yesterday after the Rugby Football Union confirmed that skills coach Jason Ryles would remain in Australia for the tournament.
The highly rated Ryles joined England’s coaching team for last year’s Autumn Nations Cup and had been due to move from Australia permanently. However, Ryles, who has a young family, has decided not to do so because of concerns over Covid-19.
While the United Kingdom now has the highest Covid daily death rate in the world, Australia has suffered just 909 deaths in total and has enforced some of the strictest restrictions, with 72 leading tennis players isolating in their Melbourne hotels before the Australian Open. The air corridor between the UK and Australia closed yesterday.
The RFU would not confirm whether it would seek a replacement for Ryles just two weeks before the start of the tournament, but it is understood it is considering all options. In a statement, the RFU also did not guarantee that Ryles would link back with England’s setup for the tour of North America.
“Due to the current Covid-19 lockdown, coach Jason Ryles and his family have chosen not to relocate to England this month as they had originally planned,” the statement read. “It is hoped Jason will rejoin the coaching team for England’s summer fixtures.”
Ryles’s absence comes after last week’s announcement that head coach Eddie Jones would be limited to selecting a squad of 28 players, which is likely to remain in place throughout the tournament barring injury replacements.
Despite his fondness for calling up bolters, Jones is expected to stick with tried and trusted options when he announces his squad on Friday. With no scope for chopping and changing his squad, he needs
proven performers rather than rich potential. England’s squad will meet at St George’s Park, the training base for the national football team, next week before their opening fixture against Scotland at Twickenham on Feb 6.
The loss of Ryles will be felt acutely. While his impact as a skills coach was only starting to be felt during the Autumn Nations Cup, in which England often flattered to deceive as an attacking force, Ryles was enormously popular among leading players, including Owen Farrell, George Ford and Billy Vunipola.
With his pedigree as a State of Origin player and coaching the allconquering Melbourne Storm team, Ryles commanded instant respect. As Ford said after his week in camp: “Jason has had a massive impact already for first receivers, ball players, playmakers, but also in our general attacking on the edges, how we can execute better and play a bit straighter to preserve the space on the outside.”
Should he not be replaced then Simon Amor, the attack coach, will shoulder more of the burden of getting the back line firing after a hit-and-miss autumn campaign.