The RFU are set to confirm their new England coaching team by the end of the week after they opened negotiations with Leicester Tigers for FOUR of their coaches.
#1. Head coach: Steve Borthwick
According to The Telegraph, Leicester have already confirmed privately that they do not intend to stand in Borthwick’s way.
Steve Borthwick and Neal Hatley talk before the Guinness Six Nations Championship match between Wales and England at Principality Stadium on February 23, 2018 in Cardiff, Wales. Photo: Phil Mingo/PPAUK
The initial plan had been for Borthwick to rejoin Eddie Jones in May as an assistant for the 2023 Rugby World Cup before taking over full-time next October.
Borthwick was appointed Head Coach at Leicester Tigers in February 2020 after five seasons as Forwards Coach with England and arrived at Mattioli Woods Welford Road during the lockdown period in July that year.
He began his coaching career in 2012, while still playing at Saracens, as coach of the club’s under-18 squad, before being recruited by Eddie Jones to join Japan as an assistant coach.
After retiring as a player in 2013/2014, he remained with the Japan squad up to the 2015 Rugby World Cup which included victories over Samoa and the USA as well as the history-making, last-gasp victory over South Africa in Brighton.
After that World Cup, it was announced that Borthwick would join Bristol Rugby as the forwards coach of the Championship club for the 2015/16 season.
In December 2015, following the appointment of Jones as England head coach, it was announced that he would become the forwards coach for the national team.
He began his rugby career at Preston Grasshoppers before joining Bath in 1998 and went on to make more than 240 appearances in a decade there.
Borthwick made his Test debut in 2001, lining up at lock alongside Martin Jonson against France at Twickenham, and went on to win 57 caps, including two years as captain from 2008 until his final Test against Scotland in the 2010 Six Nations.
In 2008, after 10 seasons at Bath, he joined Saracens and made more than 140 appearances there in six seasons, winning a Premiership title in 2011.
Alongside his rugby career, Steve completed an Economics and Politics BSc at the University of Bath and MSc Management at the University of Hertfordshire.
#2. Defence coach: Kevin Sinfield OBE
In his first season of coaching in rugby union, Kevin Sinfield was a part of the Leicester Tigers Premiership winning outfit in the 21/22 campaign.
The rugby league legend joined Steve Borthwick’s coaching team as Defence Coach ahead of the 21/22 season after three years as Director of Rugby at Super League club Leeds Rhinos.
In a trophy-laden professional rugby league career spanning 18 years, Sinfield made more than 500 appearances for Leeds Rhinos and represented England and Great Britain on more than 40 occasions.
A seven-time Super League champion, two-time Challenge Cup and triple World Club Challenge winner, Sinfield finished his rugby league career as the most decorated domestic professional player in English history and the Super League's record appearance holder and points-scorer.
He was awarded an MBE in 2014 for services to rugby league.
In 2015, he joined Yorkshire Carnegie in the RFU Championship for a season before retiring from playing professionally at the conclusion of the campaign.
Sinfield was appointed Rugby Director of the Rugby Football League in 2016 and helped lead England to the 2017 Rugby League World Cup Final before returning to Rhinos as Director of Rugby the following year.
In the 2021 Queens Birthday Honours, the incoming Tigers assistant coach was awarded an OBE for services to rugby league and charitable fundraising.
Away from coaching, Sinfield has raised more than £3,000,000 in support of the MND Association after former Rhinos team-mate and friend Rob Burrow was diagnosed with Motor neurone disease.
In December 2020, Sinfield ran 7 Marathons in 7 Days and followed up the incredible feat with a 101-mile run in 24 Hours in November 2021 from Leicester to Leeds.
#3. Attack coach: Richard Wigglesworth
The former England scrum-half joined Borthwick's coaching team ahead of the 2021/22 season to lead on the attack while continuing as a member of the Leicester Tigers senior squad.
Richard Wigglesworth of Saracens during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby Match between Bristol Bears and Saracens on the first weekend of the Return to Rugby campaign as rugby starts after COVID 19 lockdown at Ashton Gate on 15 Aug. Photo: Tom Sandberg/PPAUK/Gallagher
A multiple record-holder in Premiership Rugby, Wigglesworth has won seven titles, including starting at scrum-half in the 21/22 final, and is the only player in league history to make more than 300 appearances in the English competition.
In addition to seven Premierships, he has won three European Champions Cups.
Wigglesworth previously represented Sale Sharks and Saracens, as well as making 33 Test appearances for England which included back-to-back Rugby World Cup campaigns in 2011 and 2015.
Ahead of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Wigglesworth was appointed to the Canada national team's staff.
During his penultimate and final season as a player with Saracens, Wigglesworth balanced his playing role with coaching duties with Championship club Ealing Trailfinders.
#4. Head of physical performance: Aled Walters
A Rugby World Cup winner in 2019 and Premiership winner in 2022, Aled Walters joined Leicester Tigers as Head of Physical Performance in the summer of 2020 from South Africa's national coaching team.
The Welsh-born Walters completed a BSc in Physical Education and Sports Science at the University of Loughborough in 2002 followed by an MSc in Strength and Conditioning at the University of Edinburgh before beginning his club rugby career with the Scarlets in 2005.
He moved on to New Zealand to take up the role of Head of Strength and Conditioning at Taranaki in 2009 and in 2011 moved to Australia as Athletic Performance Coach with the ACT Brumbies in Super Rugby.
Aled headed back to the northern hemisphere in 2012 for the start of a six-year stay with Munster Rugby as Head of Athletic Performance and was recruited by the South Africa Rugby Union in 2018.
