The Rugby Football Union (RFU) has approached Leicester Tigers about the possibility of appointing Tom Harrison as England’s scrum coach ahead of the World Cup.
This news was revealed by Telegraph Sport, and it has sparked much discussion in the rugby world.
Harrison is currently part of the Leicester Tigers coaching team, which recently guided the club to the Premiership title last season. If he were to join Steve Borthwick’s coaching set-up, he would be filling a vacancy left by Richard Cockerill, who is bound for Montpellier after the Six Nations.
Borthwick has already secured the services of Kevin Sinfield as the defence coach, Richard Wigglesworth as the assistant coach, and Aled Walters as the head of strength and conditioning for the World Cup. Wigglesworth and Walters will join the coaching team after the domestic season is over.
Harrison has been part of Steve Borthwick’s coaching team since the 2020/21 season, stepping up to the role after three years as part of the Leicester Tigers academy and junior programme. He has played professional rugby in England and France, including an appearance for Barbarians FC. Harrison moved into coaching full-time in 2015, working in community coaching roles with Bristol Bears and Bath Rugby.
In 2016, Harrison was appointed Programme Lead and Men’s Rugby Head Coach at Loughborough College, and in 2017, he joined Leicester Tigers as part of the academy coaching team and AASE Programme Manager with the club’s partner Brooksby Melton College. He helped lead the Tigers to three successive Under-18 League titles before achieving Premiership success in the 2021/22 campaign.
If Harrison were to join the England coaching team, it would complete an extraordinary transplant of the coaching team that guided Leicester Tigers to their recent Premiership success. With Borthwick assembling a strong coaching team for the World Cup, it remains to be seen how Harrison’s potential addition to the set-up would impact England’s performance.
“Horror draw” – England get pool of death in revised World Cup draw
The recently released World Rugby Rankings highlight the absurdity of the Pool Draw for the upcoming Rugby World Cup 2023, which was determined three years in advance and appears to be heavily skewed.
In response to criticism, World Rugby has announced that future pool draws for the Rugby World Cup will be conducted closer to the start of the tournament, as the current practice of relying on team rankings at the time of the draw is deemed unfair.
According to a report by the Mirror, World Rugby will make changes to the pool draw process for the 2027 edition.
“World Rugby said it is able to make the change because of a new ‘hosting model’ that sees the international federation create collaborations with the host union,” the report read.
“The top of the men’s Test game has never been more competitive,” the spokesperson added. “There has never been so much movement over a two-year period.
“Bearing that in mind and noting the format of four pools of five teams, there is arguably no perfect time for a draw.”
As a result, the guys over at Eggchasers Rugby put together their own drawer the 2023 tournament based on the current World Rugby rankings.
Concentrating on only the top 10 countries in the world, it looks significant.
It was very different with England handed a much sterner test in their pool. Watch the full video here.
POOL A actual draw:
- France
- New Zealand
POOL A up to date draw
- France
- Australia