Bill Sweeney directly addresses persistent Andy Farrell England rumours

Rugby Football Union chief executive Bill Sweeney insists there has been no contact with Andy Farrell as part of England’s succession planning for the time beyond next year’s World Cup.

Sweeney has indicated that current head coach Steve Borthwick will be given the summer tour to orchestrate a revival following an abject Six Nations campaign which saw England finish fifth having suffered four successive defeats.

If Borthwick delivers a satisfactory return against South Africa, Fiji and Argentina in July, he will be in a position to see out his contract until Australia 2027 when it expires.

Farrell’s deal with Ireland also ends after the global showpiece and he revealed in the wake of the Six Nations that talks over an extension with the Irish Rugby Football Union will begin soon.

The head coach of last year’s British and Irish Lions tour would be the standout candidate to take over at Twickenham should it be decided by either Borthwick or the RFU that change is needed, but no discussions have taken place.

“He’s under contract to the 2027 World Cup,” Sweeney said of Farrell. “We’re not in a dialogue. We’re not in a discussion with him at the present.”

The review of England’s Championship will be completed by the end of next month and is being conducted by an anonymous panel of figures drawn from inside and outside the RFU with Sweeney, director of performance rugby Conor O’Shea and non-executive director Ben Kay among those involved.

Players and Borthwick’s assistant coaches are also being canvassed for their opinions on why the same team that registered their 12th successive victory when routing Wales in round one then collapsed to their worst ever Six Nations performance.

Although the review has yet to reach any conclusions on the events of the past few weeks, Sweeney’s inclination is to give Borthwick more time with England’s stirring performance against France in the climax to the tournament pointing to a brighter future.

“There is a lot of noise out there,” Sweeney said. “You’ve got to take emotion out of the equation. You just look at it purely in terms of: What was the performance? What were the issues? Why did they arise? And how do we fix them?

“I see the outcome being for us to make sure we have got the right support mechanisms in place to address them and support Steve to get that right going forward.

“We are really focussed on seeing progress again and seeing better and more consistent performances. That is the focus – it’s not a set number of wins or a percentage.

“It’s about getting back to the way we were playing. Steve talks about playing big. That has been the intention and you saw that against France.

“We still think this is an extremely strong squad that has got the potential and capability to do some really good things.”