Lewis Moody: Hire Exeter’s Rob Baxter for England

Eddie Jones will officially begin work as England head coach next Tuesday. Picture: PA

Jones officially begins work at Twickenham today after agreeing a four-year contract to become Stuart Lancaster’s successor in the wake of the recent World Cup disaster. Topping the Australian’s agenda will be speaking to Andy Farrell, Graham Rowntree and Mike Catt to see if the assistants under Lancaster, who remain employed by the Rugby Football Union, have any future.

They are likely to depart, leaving Jones to recruit a new staff that former England captain Moody believes will be based around Steve Borthwick and Leigh Jones, who were his forwards and defence coaches with Japan. But Moody insists they should be joined by Baxter, who has defied the odds by guiding Exeter into the Aviva Premiership and establishing them as a force with top-four ambitions.

“The most pressing issue is deciding who the coaching team will be,” said Moody. “I imagine that in the back of his head Eddie will have done that already, he just needs to go out and get them. He needs to let the current coaches know where they stand. Like any leader, you tend to bring in the people you trust, so I imagine that means Borthwick and Jones.

“But I’d love to see Rob involved, I like everything he stands for at Exeter where he has done so much despite having fairly scarce financial backing. He’s developed something really strong down there and he might not want to step away from it. Certainly having a Premiership coach who has some real pedigree is important.”

Once Jones has appointed his assistants, his next task will be to examine the captaincy and decide if Chris Robshaw should be retained – as skipper and flanker.

“I do see a change being made because Eddie will want someone who he can trust,” Moody added.

“I hope Chris Robshaw is retained in the next EPS squad. It would be incredibly harsh after everything he’s done to cast him to the side.”