England statement: Recruitment of Strawbridge, new Sinfield role
Steve Borthwick has bolstered his England management team ahead of the Guinness Six Nations by snapping up the services of former All Blacks assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge as a consultant on a short-term deal.
Incoming assistant coach Felix Jones, who also joins the coaching set-up having helped South Africa to back-to-back Rugby World Cup triumphs, will now be responsible for England’s defense with Kevin Sinfield moving to coach individual skills and the kickers. Richard Wigglesworth continues as attack coach and Tom Harrison remains in charge of the scrum.
On foot of this England announcement, it has since been reported that Sinfield will step away from the Borthwick ticket following the summer tour to Japan and New Zealand and that his revised role for the 2024 Six Nations is only temporary.
A statement read: “Andrew Strawbridge will join Steve Borthwick’s coaching group as a consultant coach for the first four weeks of the 2024 Guinness Six Nations.
“The 59-year-old Kiwi was recently part of the New Zealand men’s senior team set-up as a skills consultant where he helped the All Blacks to the silver medal at the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“After a playing career at Waikato, Strawbridge moved into coaching holding senior positions at national provincial level with North Harbour for two seasons from 2003 and Auckland for three seasons from 2009.
“During this time, he was also part of the coaching set-up that saw New Zealand U20s secure two world titles. From there, Strawbridge took on the role of assistant coach in the 2012 and 2013 back-to-back Super Rugby winning campaigns with the Chiefs.
“In 2015, he received senior international recognition with Manu Samoa having accepted the role of technical advisor. Strawbridge then returned to Waikato in 2019 as head coach, a position he held for two years before transitioning to director of rugby in 2021.
“2022 saw Strawbridge join the New Zealand men’s senior team set-up as a skills consultant and he continued his involvement with the national team throughout 2023.”
Borthwick said: “Andrew is another coach with a wealth of knowledge. He has worked extensively and successfully in Super Rugby and international rugby, most recently with New Zealand to help them to the final of the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
“Andrew has an incredible reputation in player development and has helped a large number of players progress to be amongst the best in the world. His work around the contact area is incredibly highly regarded, ensuring teams have the quick ball needed to launch a threatening attack. I can’t wait for him to join the team and add the enormous value that I know he will bring.”
Regarding the arrival of Jones, Borthwick, who made no mention of Sinfield in his comments, added: “I’m tremendously excited to start working with Felix who is a coach with an incredible reputation and with vast experience in international rugby.
“With his background in Irish rugby and his wealth of knowledge operating in the southern hemisphere. He will bring a different dimension to our coaching team.”
England begin their Six Nations campaign with a February 3 fixture away to Italy in Rome followed by a February 10 home game at Twickenham versus Wales.
Ahead of their upcoming squad selection on January 17, the list of club fixtures their staff will attend this weekend is Sinfield at Newcastle vs Harlequins (Friday), Borthwick at Exeter vs Northampton (Saturday), Wigglesworth and Aled Walters at Leicester vs Saracens (Saturday), and Borthwick, Richard Hill and Tom Harrison at Bath vs Gloucester (Sunday).
Comments on RugbyPass
I’ve actually never heard of the guy (then I don’t watch League as it is boring). But if he is good enough.. then good luck to him. If not, well, he can always return to league.
2 Go to commentsIt is pretty clear that by almost any measure that NZ are a more successful rugby nation than South Africa. Quite aside from the distasteful events during the last RWC final. NZ lead SA in all significant measurements.
37 Go to commentsDickson went to his pocket for a card, saw who it was, changed his mind and spoke at length to TMO. One angle clearly shows Care diving over a Saints player to kill the ball. 1st yellow, reason given for not Red was player was falling backwards. He was only falling backwards after contact with Lawes. Graham try should have stood. Mitchell did not have both hands on the ball, ball went forward from a Saints boot dragging over it. 2 intentional knock-on's. One of which had an overlap on the outside. If Quins are happy to win by intentional foul play, then it does not say much for them. Would appear to be a bad day for Karl Dickson, also for the RFU in appointing a Ref who spent 8 years as a player at one of the clubs.
1 Go to commentsLet’s not forget about Ardie Savea just yet.
4 Go to commentsThe URC and the Euro Championscup can’t run at the same time, basically dilutes both competitions.
1 Go to comments“While Sotutu should start at No.8 for the All Blacks against England, but it’s only in that arena that he can prove just how good he really is.” And that my friends is where simply hasnt shone despite multiple opportunities. Even in this performance you can see what did him in in the test arena..he almost always still runs at the opposition almost ramrod upright making him easier to stop than it should be.
4 Go to commentsShould have been 0-0 and a message from SR CEO to both teams - “don’t worry about turning up next year”.
4 Go to commentsGreat work Owen Franks. A great of this team, scoring his first try for the Crusaders since 2010.He was beaming, justifiably. A fine win, he and the rest did the job up front.
1 Go to commentsDanny Care. Lang in die tand.
1 Go to commentsBig empty stadium does nothing for atmosphere but munster are playing well with solid performance
1 Go to commentsYes, Fiji can win the World Cup! With that belief plus their christian faith🙏 and hard work it is achievable. Great article. Ian Duncan Fiji resident 1981-84
2 Go to commentsInteresting comments about Touch. England’s hosting the Touch World Cup this year and the numbers have exploded since their last World Cup in 2019, something like 70% more teams and 40 nations taking part. And England Touch have made a big thing about how many universities are in their BUCS University Touch Championship as well as Sport England membership. Can only see this growing even more domestically as more people become aware of it
10 Go to comments“Cortez Ratima is light years ahead of anyone on current form, while TJ Perenara has also skyrocketed into contention following the unfortunate injury to the talented Cam Roigard.” At last some sanity. Hitherto so many pundits have been wittering on about Finlay Christie to the point one wondered if they were observing a FC in a parallel universe where the FC they saw wasnt just the mediocre Shayne Philpott project of Fosters hapless AB reign in the real world. Ratima, Perenara and Fakatava are the ONLY logical 9s for Razor now Roigard is crocked.
4 Go to commentsThis game was just as painful as the Hurricanes game. It was real fork-in-the-eye stuff.
4 Go to commentsNow if they could just fire the Crusaders ground PA guy who likes to play his dance music and just loves the sound of his own voice the entire game, even when play is going on. And I thought their brass band thing of a few years ago was bad.
5 Go to commentsUnfortunately when you lose by far the two form players this season in Roigard and Aumua, you're left replacing two game changing Tanks with a couple of pea-shooters. Which is also about the speed of TJs pass.
4 Go to commentsBit rich coming from the guy with zero loyalty to anyone or any team, including happily taking a players place in a league world cup squad because well, SBW wanted to play in it and thus an already named player got told he was no longer going. And airing stuff like this, which may or may not be true, doesn't exactly say you're a stand up guy either SBW. Just looking to keep his name in lights as usual.
38 Go to commentsTamati Tua. …the Taniwha NPC midfielder. Ollie Sapsford, Hawkes Bay NPC midfielder…doing well
4 Go to commentsFiji deserve to be in the rugby championship, fans love seeing the Fijian national team play, the Fijian Drua is a wonderful idea but the players can still be stolen to play for NZ and AUS…
2 Go to commentsThe first concern for this afternoon are wheather forecast…
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