New RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney has admitted that England head coach Eddie Jones could stay beyond his contract which runs out in 2021.
Along with this Sweeney announced that assistant coach John Mitchell has signed a contract until 2021 also, which had been reported earlier by the Telegraph.
The move for Mitchell is to coincide with Jones’ contract according to Sweeney.
“We have extended John Mitchell’s contract through to be consistent with Eddie’s, so it goes through to June of 2021. That was in full consultation with Eddie. He and I spoke about it about five, six weeks ago maybe. It is part of Eddie’s long-term coaching structure plans. So we entered into negotiations with John, he is keen to stay and we concluded the agreement about three weeks ago. He is contracted now through to June 2021,” he said.
Mitchell joined Jones’ set-up just before the Red Roses Autumn internationals and has overseen a positive turn in results since.
Sweeney continued on to say that Jones could potentially remain at the helm after his current contract runs out.
“It is possible, we are not looking at that at this stage. The focus now is really on the World Cup and then making sure we get our plans in place post World Cup. Eddie has reconfirmed his commitment through to 2021. We have lots of conversations on that and he has said he wants to stay through to the end of that contracted period. So, from that perspective we’ve already started conversations around what will the structure and look of that coaching team be coming back from Japan,” he added.
Although Mitchell has extended his contract there are several others in the coaching set-up of England that are yet to commit, and Jones is looking at candidates to sign up according to Sweeney.
“He has got a number of names in the frame. We haven’t approached them yet. We wouldn’t contract anyone pre-World Cup. But he has got in mind how he would like to structure that as soon as we get back. We would confirm it immediately as soon as we got back,” he continued.
If speculation is to be believed then Mitchell’s extension could be part of a plan for him to eventually replace Jones as head coach of the English team, however, for now Jones will stay in charge.
