John Mitchell leaves England for Wasps

Lee Blackett said "Once we knew John was available, we prioritised getting him back to Wasps", which sounds like Mitchell made the decision to leave England before he had lined up his next job. He apparently officially handed in his notice last mont.

It's never clear how much Jones expects these departures. It will certainly change things up in the England camp, and that may be no bad thing. However, it creates a lot of uncertainty, and there's no guarantee the next man in can have the immediate impact Mitchell managed. As we also saw with Jason Ryles, the pandemic makes recruiting anyone from overseas a more difficult proposition than usual.

While few had Mitchell down as the successor to Jones, it was always a possibility as long as he was in the number 2 role. This seems to take him out of contention, so you'd hope the RFU is putting some thought into who will be the next England coach right now.

Apparently Mitchell will be our new attack coach which will free up our current coach Martin Gleeson.
So he could move the opposite way.

Mark Jones rumoured to be new defence coach but it is wol

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/sport/rugby/rugby-news/wales-international-mark-jones-line-21132310

Wouldn't be beyond the realms of possibility following Robinsons involvement in the 6 nations.

So Mitchell (a forward) to become an attack coach at Wasps and Mark Jones (a winger) to become defence coach for England? Hmmm. Seems a bit mixed up to me!

John Mithcell revolutionised the way the Sigma Lions played. When he took over in (I think it was 2012) the Lions wer kicked out of super rugby, he had to start from scratch building a new squad, hehad Carlos Spencer and Johan Ackerman as his assistant coaches.

three years later the Lions went the the first kf three Super rugby finals.

Granted he left before the three years, bu he built the foundation of how they played and the swuad itself.

Also having had him in the Supersprot studio as an analyst for a while , he has impressed me immensely with his knowledge and abilities.

Eddie has always liked to mix up his coaching staff. Mitchell was a long serving option but it always feels like Eddie is happy to see them progress on to something new. Not sure that'll be the same for Mitchell quite so much as say Gustard and Borthwick that took top jobs at Prem clubs. The Wasps attack job is in theory a pretty sweet gig and the brief is pretty much "don't fu¢€ up what is already working". At a guess he'll also be mentoring the new and inexperienced defence coach at Wasps as well.

As for the next England head coach, I'd still put money on Eddie again. He enjoys it, he's at an age where 6 more years leaves him at 67 and an ideal age for retirement in Oz with maybe a little consultancy and media work for when he wants a bit of travel on expenses. If he only opts for two more years expect the RFU to go English so Baxter, Borthwick, Voldemort and Sanderson to he immediately in the frame. I'm not sure they'll go for a foreign option again as that would be like admitting they can't develop their own option if they do then Lam would be a favourite but the return of Mitchell more likely as Lam would be a bit out there for the RFU.