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Mitchell to start as England's defence coach as soon as next month


John Mitchell
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Mitchell is set to join the England setup within the next month.

The Daily Mail has reported former All Blacks coach John Mitchell has agreed to contract terms with the RFU, with the only hurdle remaining the buyout of his current contract with the Bulls in South Africa.

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The RFU will negotiate a release payment with the Super Rugby side to compensate for the loss of their Director of Rugby and Head Coach for the final year of his current deal.

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The move was in motion during England’s tour of South Africa in June, where Eddie Jones reportedly met with Mitchell to discuss the idea. He has beaten out Wales defence coach Shaun Edwards for the role, who was also rumoured to also be in contention.

Mitchell’s new deal with the RFU will see him replace Paul Gustard as the defence coach until the end of the 2019 World Cup. It will be his first role as an assistant coach since the year 2000, will be the latest stop in a long list of coaching destinations that spans six countries, his most successful being with the All Blacks where he maintained a win percentage of over 80% over two seasons as head coach.

He also coached the Golden Lions to a Currie Cup championship in 2011.

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Phantom 32 minutes ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

Fact: the gap between the North and the South has narrowed considerably - that I get. However, determining that only selecting only Home grown players or playing in the home country is is the optimal strategy is a bit of a toss up and highly reliant on the economies of the home union. I do understand that England and to a lesser degree Ireland selects home based only. The top 14 is a massive threat to their domestic product. France would probably not be affected (the money is at home). Fiji, Argentina, Samoa, Italy and you could even argue Scotland have only benefitted from this. Their players either go overseas to learn at higher levels (Fiji, Samoa, Argentina) or players coming into their leagues to strengthen the home product and their National teams (Scotland, Italy, Japan).

South Africa used to limit its selection to the home based players, but the reality of a weak currency vs what players could earn oversees meant that you lost access to your best players at some stage of their careers, with very few exceptions. Kolbe left SA as he was considered too small for International Rugby (yes coaches/selectors view), but ironically in France he forced selectors to notice his endeavors and select him. He is only reaching 50 caps now despite being north of 30 - granted rotation and the odd injury also played a role, but for the most part it is having debuted or becoming a regular so late.



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