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RFU swoop for Pendlebury as England U18s head coach
Following on from England’s impressive Rugby World Cup campaign, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) have moved to fill the current vacancies in the age-grade pathway, with the governing body hiring Jonathan Pendlebury to serve as head coach of the under-18 side.
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Pendlebury joins the RFU from Wasps, where he has held the position of academy manager since 2017, overseeing the development of the likes of Tom Willis, Alfie Barbeary and Jude Williams, among others. He also held the same position at Yorkshire Carnegie prior to joining Wasps two years ago.
The 36-year-old replaces Jim Mallinder, who departed for the Scottish Rugby Union earlier this year, taking on the role of performance director with the union. The acquisition of Pendlebury by the RFU represents a return to development coaches on the English pathway, after Mallinder joined Dean Ryan in the set-up in 2018, with both men having spent over a decade as performance coaches at various clubs.
On his hiring, Pendlebury said: “I’m really honoured and excited to be taking on this role with England Rugby and helping guide the next generation of talent coming through the international player pathway.
“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time at Wasps where, as a team, we’ve managed to develop and help a lot of fantastic young players progress through the system.
“I’m really proud of what myself and the Wasps Academy have achieved over the past couple of years and I’d like to thank the club and wish them the best of luck in the future.”
It's seemingly still business as usual at Saracens despite the salary cap saga as coveted South Africa reportedly set to sign https://t.co/hb4DVsfL4v
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) November 13, 2019
Pendlebury is set to work with head of regional academies Don Barrell and England team manager Richard Hill on talent identification in the 14 regional Premiership academies and at the school level, whilst he will also work with the incoming under-20 head coach to help players transition through the pathway.
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The under-20s position is currently vacant following the split with Steve Bates earlier this year, whilst the role that Ryan vacated in order to take the director of rugby position at the Dragons, head of international player development, is also still to be filled. The RFU will be keen for a level of stability among the age-grade sides moving forward, with the pathway’s fortunes having diminished since the organisation parted ways with John Fletcher, Peter Walton and Russell Earnshaw last year.
Pendlebury’s first matches in charge of the side will come early in 2020 when the England under-18s play multiple standalone fixtures ahead of the U18 Six Nations Festival and the annual summer development tour.
The coming weeks are expected to be busy ones for the RFU, with not only the two other pathway positions to fill and announce, but also a review of England’s senior coaching staff, which is set to conclude on Thursday. England’s scrum coach Neal Hatley has already joined up with Bath, whilst forwards coach Steve Borthwick has been heavily and repeatedly linked with a role at Leicester Tigers.
Watch: Wales’ decision to play Jonathan Davies is now under scrutiny
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Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments