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On This Day: Brian Ashton handed reprieve as England head coach
By PA
England head coach Brian Ashton was reappointed following an in-depth review into the state of the national team on this day in 2007.
Ashton had been set to lose his job following England’s World Cup final defeat by South Africa but earned a reprieve, with Rob Andrew’s recommendation to keep England’s core World Cup coaching team in place approved by the Rugby Football Union’s management board.
Andrew said: “I’m delighted that Brian and his coaching team will remain with England – and like them, I’m looking forward to what will be a challenging international year in 2008.”
Within days of England losing the World Cup final to South Africa, it appeared as if Ashton’s time as head coach was up.
The RFU was not willing to back its man until Andrew, the elite rugby director, had conducted his post-tournament review.
He did not stay in the job much longer, though, and left in April 2008 shortly after England finished second behind Wales in the Six Nations, with former captain Martin Johnson taking charge of the team.
Ashton, now 75, held several low profile coaching roles after his exit but did not work at the top level again.
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Latest Comments
Nah, that just needs some more variation. Chip kicks, grubber stabs, all those. Will Jordan showed a pretty good reason why the rush was bad for his link up with BB.
If you have an overlap on a rush defense, they naturally cover out and out and leave a huge gap near the ruck.
It also helps if both teams play the same rules. ARs set the offside line 1m past where the last mans feet were😅
Go to commentsYeah nar, should work for sure. I was just asking why would you do it that way?
It could be achieved by outsourcing all your IP and players to New Zealand, Japan, and America, with a big Super competition between those countries raking it in with all of Australia's best talent to help them at a club level. When there is enough of a following and players coming through internally, and from other international countries (starting out like Australia/without a pro scene), for these high profile clubs to compete without a heavy australian base, then RA could use all the money they'd saved over the decades to turn things around at home and fund 4 super sides of their own that would be good enough to compete.
That sounds like a great model to reset the game in Aus. Take a couple of decades to invest in youth and community networks before trying to become professional again. I just suggest most aussies would be a bit more optimistic they can make it work without the two decades without any pro club rugby bit.
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