Martin Johnson expected to be new England coach

[Joe King]

No, Don Capello hasn't left but Leicester Tigers and England legend Martin Johnson is expected to be the new England coach tomorrow.

Current England coach Brian Ashton is expected to have a role back at the academy.

More news to follow...

[Darth Marty]

Im no rugby guru but isnt this a bad call? The fella will undoubtedly inject passion etc into the setup but surely his credentials are poor? Smacks of desperation for me.

[Shaggy]

Judging by the popularity of this thread, clearly this is very exciting news.

[dww]

I actually think it might be good. I think we need someone with the same attitude as Woodward - try and build up a top setup. The fact he has no credentials as such is a bit of a red herring in my opinion as he will come in with everyones respect and great contacts in the game. I assume that Rob Andrew has talked through his plans with him and would imagine it involves a change in coaching practices but that doesn't necessarily mean that Jonno will be all that hands on unless he wants to be.

A lot of the criticism of Ashton seems to have been about his organisational rather than coaching abilities and on the pitch Johnson had those and there may well be other out of rugby interests that demonstrate it too. Woodward for example mostly drew on his experience in business to show him how to run things. Add to that the idea that at the last Rugby world cup the senior players did a lot of the work themselves and it would appear that unlike footballers top rugby players have a lot more influence on tactics etc. anyway.

[Imy]

Im no rugby guru but isnt this a bad call? The fella will undoubtedly inject passion etc into the setup but surely his credentials are poor? Smacks of desperation for me.

His credentials are poor

The man has won everything in World Rugby, in fact his captained his teams to every title in World Rugby - the man's a legend, if anybody is going to get England going it's going to be Johnno.

Ashton should not be involved though at any level, get rid of the old regime and build a new one.

[Joe King]

Judging by the popularity of this thread, clearly this is very exciting news.

Get back to the aftershave thread.