Conor O'Shea

[laughs] Um, I...

Listen, Conor O'Shea's come out and he said he doesn't want the coaches going into a World Cup looking for other jobs, basically blaming Eddie Jones 'cause that's what Eddie Jones did, didn't he, with Japan and Australia and all that stuff back in 2023.

Um-

Conor O'Shea was quoted as saying what, though? There was one word that he used.

Imagine we-

...

in Conor O'Shea's world-

... imagine right now, right, imagine right now if we had Faz as our head coach, we being England, and I'm sat with a Scotsman, a Welshman, me and Rob We'd be going thinking about the World Cup going-

So those two scenarios, you know, it's very tricky, um, trying to manage a succession plan around a World Cup.

Because the RFU, as Connor O'Shea said on that podcast, they seem to put everything in the World Cup basket, which is a mistake in my opinion.

But what they've done here is give themselves a safety net, a, a hedge so that they're not backing Borthwick and then having to sack him.

Um, but they're also not creating this awkward situation where they're recruit- they're trying to recruit a replacement now.

I think there's a lot of England fans will be thinking, "Why on earth would he be staying beyond the World Cup?" And actually, to be fair to them, to me anyway, it does feel like the end of that World Cup is a fairly natural point for the whole Borthwick project to come to an end.

Alex mentioned it there, though, Charlie.

Connor O'Shea, in that interview with the BBC, spoke about the World Cup a lot, which is often what we hear with England, isn't it? And the RFU, that building towards the World Cup, judge us on the World Cup, which seems...

Is it, like, incredibly foolish that you're judging, like, a whole tenure, a whole four years on a knockout game where you could get a red card or injuries or whatever the case may be, and you might be unlucky on the day?

Who cares?

Yeah, Co- Conor O'Shea's, uh, point on this was, we can't have coaches that are going into a Rugby World Cup, you know, organizing what they're, what they're gonna be doing beyond the Rugby World Cup.

Well, hang on.

Like-

Just, just, just hold your horses, Conor O'Shea, right? If you wanna keep your job post Rugby World Cup-

Yeah

...

They're effectively saying his future will be still judged after the World Cup.

Connor O'Shea says they didn't want Steve Borthwick and the coaches heading into Australia with any uncertainty of being out of contract immediately afterwards the narrative around these things during the World Cup if they're not performing well or they're not winning games or even in the lead up to it will be around Steve Borthwick are you confident you're going to keep your job and all these different things so Connor O'Shea has done England head coach Steve Borthwick and the coaches are solid I understand why he's doing that there's always a lot of talk around England sport teams anyway in general but rugby specifically in this case when it comes to coaches and negativity around narratives in sport in England but the interesting part to all of this conversation around Steve Borthwick and this contract renewal extension whatever you want to call it was the comments made by Conor O'Shea as well around the Six Nations which he was quoted to saying was horrendous as we know England were poor in last Six Nations and only won one match which is the worst I think since the inception of the Six Nations over 25 years ago what this has effectively done though is just given everyone involved in the RFU who are under a lot of scrutiny by many people in England and Steve Borthwick has been under a lot of pressure as well.

There was a lot of people that didn't want him to carry on as head coach as we know England have had a few changes over the last wee while as well and probably need a little bit of stability.

And everything is geared towards Australia 2027.

You can't be thinking about where's your next contract coming out of that.

And as I mentioned, the questions and the narrative that the media will build in the lead up to the World Cup and during the World Cup in Australia, It's not what's needed.

So the smoke and mirrors from Connor O'Shea after what he quoted was a horrendous Six Nations is actually quite smart.

It's a six-month extension.

I think we should chat about another slightly shorter contrast extension.

So Conor O'Shea of the RFU was on the BBC Five Live podcast this week and was talking about Steve Borthwick and revealed that Borthwick had signed an extension until the end of the 2028 six nations uh the reaction has been interesting to this maybe maybe charlie maybe walk through the uh the logistical reasons of why this has been done first and then we'll chat about what it means

The logistical reasons are effectively so that a head coach and it should be said the assistant coaches aren't going into a World Cup where they are, whatever happens, leaving at the end of it.

And it seems like it's sort of an administrative point so that there will be performance-related clauses in there, I'm sure, so that there is, that mitigates sort of a big payoff if the RFU choose to, for Steve Balthwick to not be in post after the World Cup.

So it's just that little bit.

And the way Conor O'Shea explained it was that it's brought into line with what the little buffer that they had with John Mitchell with England, England women after the last, after the last world cup, which obviously ended successfully.

Um, I certainly wouldn't say it's an endorsement, um, because we've seen what endorsements look like in the past.

They look like multi-year extensions.

And the news comes via Rugby Union Weekly via the BBC.

So they caught up with Conor O'Shea, that's still available, so you can listen to the full interview.

But in terms of what we've read and the snippets that you've read out, it's obviously extending long enough that it's either giving breathing space for the coaches so that they're not having to be distracted, not having to be answering questions about what does their future look like, although those questions are already being asked, and we're not even at World Cup yet.

I think the questions will always be asked, right? No matter how, how long your contract is, they will always be asked.

You know what I mean? Whether it goes badly or not, you can then...

If the World Cup means the most, you can then make a reflection on how that World Cup has gone on your staff, rather than pre-World Cup having a, you know, a dead duck walk in like, "Hey, somebody has a bad World Cup." I just think it, take the personalities and people out of it, it kind of makes sense.

And you talk about Bill Sweeney and Conor O'Shea, like, if England go badly at the World Cup, their probably positions are up for renewal.

You know, they're probably looking at those positions as well.

Right.

Oh, it's also a special with Conor O'Shea as well, the, uh, one of the head honchos at the RFU-

Right

... with a year to go to the Rugby World Cup.