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The Breakdown | England’s succession plans flawed given rugby’s ever shifting landscape
The idea that the RFU wants an Englishman to replace Eddie Jones is fine in theory but will the right man be available?
It may be a touch unfair – albeit good fun – to imagine the Succession screenwriters are overseeing the Rugby Football Union’s transition to life after Eddie Jones. No prizes for guessing who fulfils the Logan Roy role and there seem parallels too, between Kendall and Steve Borthwick, someone who has at times appeared the natural successor but about whom doubts over his suitability to be top dog have lingered.
Sometimes though, life at the RFU can seem stranger than fiction. The chief executive, Bill Sweeney, and the performance director, Conor O’Shea, were last week at pains to point out that there is a robust succession plan in place. It is apparently called Project Everest, there is a “war room” that features “contracts and all sorts of things” relating to potential candidates and the RFU wants to appoint an Englishman. Ideally, an entire English coaching team and the plan would be to make the appointment next summer. They may well work under Jones in the run-up to the 2023 World Cup and apparently he is happy at the prospect. It is also criteria which, on the face of it, makes Andy Farrell a far harder appointment to make given his current commitments.
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