The inability to pick overseas players
This is just one of the areas that is likely to raise a red warning flag with prospective candidates. Any ‘super-coach’ would want the comfort of knowing they could do the job the way they wanted; free from interference. Michael Cheika arrived at Australia and immediately brought the likes of Matt Giteau and Drew Mitchell back into the fold, despite the fact that they were playing in France. Their performances at the World Cup were used as a stick with which to beat the RFU, who resisted strong pressure to relax the policy on overseas players and pick the likes of Steffon Armitage and Nick Abendanon.
Toulon's Steffon Armitage is not eligible for England
Sir Clive Woodward’s shadow
Calls for the 2003 World Cup winning coach to return to HQ in some capacity - potentially as a director of rugby above any head coach - may have made prospective candidates wary. While undoubtedly a brilliant manager and coach in his day, Woodward casts a big shadow.
Sir Clive Woodward's presence is still keenly felt
The relationship with Premiership Rugby
The relationship between the RFU and English clubs is solid in many respects. The England head coach gets good access to players for instance. But Premiership Rugby also has its own commercial and sporting interests and they are not always aligned with the RFU's. The fiasco over Sam Burgess’s position highlighted a lack of cohesion, with Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell clearly wanting Burgess to play at 12, but Bath - his main paymaster - wanting him at six. As Will Greenwood pointed out after Burgess’ decision to return to Rugby League: "If New Zealand were in this position - as we saw with Beauden Barrett - and Steve Hansen wanted him to play full-back [with the Hurricanes] because that's where he sees him playing in the World Cup, then he gets that control. As long as we have that divide, then in the grand scheme of things we're going to find it really difficult to close the gap on the southern hemisphere teams.”
The Sam Burgess affair highlighted flaws
The reputation of the RFU
Memorably described by Will Carling as “57 old farts” the RFU still struggles for positive PR - even if it has come a long way since Carling's day. It often appears very muddled. Leaks, fallouts, PR gaffes. The RFU has the deepest pockets of any union in the world, with an annual turnover in excess of £150million. An A-list candidate could reportedly expect to be paid up to half a million quid a year. But as Michael Cheika said while categorically ruling himself out of the running this week: money isn’t everything. “I'm an Australian coaching Australia. It's the dream. There is nothing that would change my mind.”
Skills
While the England head coach has a huge pool of players from which to pick, it is debatable whether their skillsets are a match for those found in the southern hemisphere. Whether that is down to coaching, conditions or culture is a moot point. Still, England have always had strong forwards who have consistently proven a match for southern hemisphere packs, and there are plenty of exciting young backs such as Henry Slade, Elliot Daly, Christian Wade, Jack Nowell, George Ford, Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph and Jonny May. Any new coach is unlikely to be able to blame a lack of talent at his disposal. Which in turn raises other issues.
Henry Slade could be a fine player for England
Expectations
England have the biggest player base, a strong domestic game, the richest Union in the world and a huge fanbase. Fans rightly expect England to deliver, although as with the football team expectations are often out of whack. As we saw at the World Cup, the northern hemisphere is a step or two behind the southern hemisphere at the moment but any new head coach, particularly one with a big reputation, would be expected to bridge that gap straight away. It adds up to a lot of pressure - and that's before you consider the expectations from a robust media, with any coach guaranteed a pretty rough ride at certain points.
England fans have high expectations
• Who could replace Stuart Lancaster?
They already have great jobs
Steve Hansen has just coached New Zealand - reportedly the only nation in world rugby whose head coach earns more than the England head coach - to a brilliant World Cup victory and has a visit from the British and Irish Lions to look forward to in 2017. Michael Cheika has only been with Australia for 12 months and wants to continue what he has started. Both are coaching their own nations and are therefore in their perfect jobs already. Joe Schmidt, Warren Gatland and Vern Cotter are all ex-pats but all are well established where they are. Eddie Jones may be more easily prised out of his Stormers contract, which he has only just taken up, but even he has doubts about swapping the delights of Table Mountain for Twickenham. Only Jake White has made himself available but his desperation to get the job (his employers at Montpellier must be delighted) is a turn-off. Plus he hasn’t coached at Test level since 2007.
Michael Cheika preferred to stay with the Wallabies
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