England warn they will also go after the best available coach
WALES will have plenty of competition to land their top targets to replace head coach Warren Gatland after the 2019 World Cup.
That the warning from England chief executive Steve Brown, who insists that the Rugby Football Union are not lagging behind their Six Nations rivals in the search for a successor to Eddie Jones.
The Welsh Rugby Union have already drawn up a three-man shortlist on who will succeed Gatland, with Scarlets’ mastermind Wayne Pivac, Glasgow’s Dave Rennie and Hurricanes head honcho Chris Boyd all tipped to take over from their fellow Kiwi.
Meanwhile, the RFU have yet to draw up any list of candidates to take over from Jones, who has won two Six Nations championships and World Rugby’s Coach of the Year since taking the reigns after from Stuart Lancaster after their disastrous 2015 World Cup campaign.
But Brown believes that, despite very little being said about them, England are not trailing behind their enemy across the border in terms of appointing the best-possible coach after world rugby’s showpiece in Japan in two years time.
“No I think we may not be that far apart actually,” said Brown. “We’re not public yet with our thinking but we’re probably not that far apart.
“Is it three candidates that they’ve secured or is it who they might go after? There’s an element of circumstance and speculation.
“I’m not criticising their process, I’m just saying it could change quite quickly, couldn’t it, and certainly given the outcome of the tournament it could certainly change.
And, as well as not being far behind in the search, Brown also admitted that the two unions would likely be chasing the same candidates – with England willing to scour the globe for the right man – saying: “I guess that’s inevitable isn’t it, but it depends on when they become available, that’s the other point.
“It can be a very busy postWorld Cup period, as was after the last World Cup, so I think it’s probably inevitable when you have so much success that your coach becomes very popular.
“The situation with Eddie remains the same, his contract ends in 2019 after the World Cup but, as I’ve said previously, we continue to work on our succession plan: what are we going to do about our head coach at that point, what are we going to do in the interim?
“Our plan is certainly before we get started on the 2019 campaign and into that year to have worked it out and be clear publicly about what our plans are.”