England lose another member of the age grade setup

Following in from the loss of Bates and Ryan now Voldemort is off north of the border. Another blow to the England development setup with the head of the young player pathway system taking over as Scotland Performance Director. This not only leaves the England setup more depleted but gives Scotland valuable insight into those in the English system that may be dual qualified and may be worth targeting for a switch of national identity.

The RFU have now to replace Ryan the International Head of Player Development (trumped up title if there ever was one) and Under 20s Head Coach Bates as well. It's a big ask to rebuild from scratch at a time when the RFU clearly aren't seen as the best option going. Ryan jumped ship to be DOR of the perennial strugglers Dragons for instance.

Going to need to find someone with vision for this job. It's a shame that Tigers academy coach (back to back academy league winner) has just joined the England Sports Development place at Loughborough Uni otherwise he'd have been a good shout for player development.

Don't really know what to make of it all.

Certainly in Ryan's case, the disruption seems mainly down to having his funding cut back. It's unclear whether reduced RFU funding now makes England jobs a bad deal compared with other international rugby posts, or if it's all about changed expectations. If you thought you'd have a certain budget, and it goes, then you would re-evaluate your position. Somebody else might be prepared to take the job on those same conditions.

Mallinder heads off to Scotland to become Performance Director

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Mallinder heads off to Scotland to become Performance Director

Mallinder = Voldemort as above.


Good point on the budgets. If you have a reduced budget you are still expected to build but whilst making cuts. That's not a fun job to sit down and decide who or what is being cut. Can understand that some don't want that responsibility if it wasn't part of the original agreement.