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England statement: Recruitment of Strawbridge, new Sinfield role
By Liam Heagney
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.
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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.
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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.
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“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.”
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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).
Wigglesworth stays as attack coach translates to Ford at 10 and probably captain as well. Another 6N humiliation looms I suspect.
Wigglesworth was never an inventive or attacking 9 so why on earth is he “attack” coach, Nick Evans is far, far more experiwncen and actually played an attacking role.
Think the RFU made an error in letting Borthwick bring his Tigers team over en masse - they should have insisted on a couple of more experienced coaches in supporting roles instead of throwing money at Leicester. Think we’ll see Sinfield and Wigglesworth moving on soon enough.
this seems like a pretty surprising allocation of roles. I really would have thought sinfield on defence, jones on attack, and wigglesworth on skills would make the most sense.
I guess the blessing and the curse england have is that they have 3 backs coaches who could pretty much all do each others’ jobs.