England’s to-do list for Six Nations: Defence, Marcus Smith and more
Joe El-Abd is the man tasked with finding the answers to these questions.
The 44-year-old is Borthwick’s former college roommate and has been the defensive coach for more than a month.
But now that the autumn internationals are over, his focus has shifted elsewhere.
He will take over his head coaching duties on Friday when Ligue 2 side Oyonnax face Stade Montois as part of a work-sharing agreement struck by the Rugby Football Union.
The unusual arrangement is partly due to the RFU’s rush to replace Irishman Felix Jones, who resigned in August after just seven months as defense coach.
With Jones on 12 months’ notice, England are faced with a situation where they have two defensive coaches. One had no previous international experience and was juggling two jobs, the other had the experience of winning back-to-back Rugby World Cups and appeared to be underemployed while providing information to England analysts remotely.
“Joel-Abd has been appointed to left field and his team (currently 14th out of 16 teams) are struggling in France’s second division,” Former England winger Chris Ashton told Rugby League Weekly.
“He’s a part-time player and England’s defense doesn’t look good.”
Grayson believes the situation was England’s fault, with Borthwick replacing Eddie Jones two years later and the only constant in the coaching staff being change.
“There’s been a lot of change in the England backroom staff and it’s difficult to keep the message the same when it’s constantly changing,” he said.
“How do you maintain consistency?
“Are you going to get any spare change? Or are you going to ask why those people left?
“Obviously, in any business, having so much staff turnover has an impact on the output of the people involved.”
