REACTION Andrew defiant as Mallinder becomes early favourite to succeed outgoing manager
Rob Andrew insists he will not be following Martin Johnson by resigning from his lucrative post at the Rugby Football Union. Andrew has been in charge of the RFU’s elite rugby department since 2006 and he has now overseen the departure of three England head coaches: Johnson, Brian Ashton and Andy Robinson.
Northampton’s Jim Mallinder has emerged as the bookmakers’ early favourite to succeed Johnson.
The Professional Game Board will hold their World Cup review today, when much of the focus will be on Andrew’s role. One source close to the PGB said: “Rob Andrew is ultimately in charge. If it’s not working then who’s responsibility is it? Where does it all come back to?”
Andrew, however, reacted angrily to questions about whether he should be considering his future at Twickenham.
“I’m absolutely not considering resigning,” he said. “Martin was appointed three-and-a-half years ago to run the England team. Martin’s unit is a self-contained unit within the elite rugby department running the England team.That is about a fifth of the responsibilities I have in running the biggest department of the union, from a financial point of view. Absolutely [I take responsibility] in terms of the department and the structure of the professional game and that’s the understanding of my role in this.”
With the RBS 6 Nations looming in February and England to name an elite squad in the first week of January, Andrew’s immediate task is to work on appointing a new head coach. Mallinder has already declared his interest in the job but said recently he would only consider it if he could report directly to the RFU management board.
The former England full-back’s position strengthened last night when another candidate, the former South Africa and Italy coach Nick Mallett, said he was not interested in the post.
Mallinder, a 45-year-old Yorkshireman, led Northampton back into the Premiership during his first season at the helm in 2007/08, and under his guidance Saints went on to win the European Challenge Cup, Anglo-Welsh Cup and reach last season’s Heineken Cup final.
He has also enjoyed success at representative level, steering England Under-21s to Six Nations title success in 2006 before claiming 15 wins out of 16 games as England Saxons supremo.
Stuart Barnes, meanwhile, believes the RFU should do everything in their power to lure New Zealand’s World Cup-winning coach Graham Henry, who has now stepped down from All Blacks duty.
Henry will be in London next week, coaching the Barbarians ahead of their November 26 appointment with Australia at Twickenham.
“I would love to see Graham Henry take over,” said the former England fly-half. “Henry is the best and most experienced coach in the world, and what he does best is that he is outstanding at developing his coaches. “Graham Henry is my choice. It would take a lot for him to leave his beloved New Zealand, but it’s not out of the question.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article