Not many candidates remain but the RFU’s search for an England coach continues. Such is the state of play in the race for the job no one seems to want that an anti-Apprentice process has taken over. Despite a lucrative contract on offer, the potential applicants diminish daily without ever talking themselves up.
Michael Cheika is the latest to distance himself from the vacant role. He did so emphatically and joins a growing list of men touted as potential successors to Stuart Lancaster before declaring their unavailability. Warren Gatland, Eddie Jones and Wayne Smith have already done so, as have domestic possibilities, including Jim Mallinder, Mike Ford and Rob Baxter.
Perhaps some are saying one thing and thinking another, bearing in mind the RFU’s insistence that no expense will be spared when recruiting an established international coach.
The odds fell on Monday on Jones succeeding Lancaster, despite the former Australia and Japan coach previously saying “I am wholly committed to the Stormers”, while Cheika’s stance was even more wholehearted than his compatriot’s.
The Australia coach – back in England with the Barbarians after leading his nation to the World Cup final – denied being approached by the RFU and said he was in his dream job with the Wallabies, even if talks over a contract extension have yet to start. He suggested England do not need to tear up their long-term vision and turn to a hired gun, citing the strength of numerous English coaches who could step up from club level.
“I know it can be cut-throat and, if the minds don’t meet … ” said Cheika of the international game. “As the head coach, your role is to do well now but it’s also to plant the seeds that someone else is going to benefit from further down the track. I know that sounds like utopia but I believe that when you work that way, plan that way, you’ll get benefits in the short term as well because that’s what people want to see.
“They want to see you building towards something in the future as well as trying to get short-term goals – as any good business manager would be doing, trying to strike some victories in the short term but also plan long term, so that you can sit in the stands in 10 years time and think ‘I was a part of making that happen’.
“I’m no one to be giving anyone advice. I’m nobody. I just think you’ve got to build something from within. You have an idea of what you want and you grow that. I’m into that style. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s going to be the greatest solution maybe for tomorrow but you take that option, you grow it and you show this is the pathway through and this is what our next crop of coaches are going to be.
“That’s what we want to try to do in Australia: breed the next crop of coaches, whether it’s the boys who are coaching with me now, Stephen Larkham and Nathan Grey, or those guys who are going to come through next.”
The former South Africa coach Jake White reiterated his interest in the England job after his Montpellier side were defeated 41-18 by Harlequins at The Stoop but said he would not endure a “rigmarole” of a recruitment process.
The RFU’s insistence on a candidate with international experience would appear to rule out another Englishman, with the exception of Sir Clive Woodward, and the organisation’s chief executive, Ian Ritchie, said the union would be “uninhibited” in its search.
However, Cheika, who came close to coaching Argentina before the Wallabies, does not believe money always solves the problem. He added: “Well, it will help the bloke you throw money at. No, it’s about getting the right person that fits that team and those people.
“It really depends on the person. You see how much the Welsh love Warren Gatland and the Irish with Joe Schmidt now. I don’t think it [the same nationality] is a prerequisite. There is no rule of thumb. It is how the person feels and the people running the game in the country.”
