Attack coach: Mike Catt
The RFU have confirmed Mike Catt has joined Stuart Lancaster's staff as the new England attacking skills coach.
The 40-year-old, who was capped 75 times by England and was selected for the 2001 British & Irish Lions tour of Australia, impressed during a temporary spell within the set-up on the recent tour of South Africa.
Despite Andy Farrell's return to the international scene, Catt has now been handed a permanent position as England prepare to face Fiji, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand in the autumn.
"Mike made a big impression in South Africa, both on the players and the management," said Lancaster.
"When we got back I asked him to outline his vision for developing not only the skills of the senior team, especially in attack, but with our younger players in the Saxons.
"Having played at the highest level for many years and developed his coaching during his time at London Irish he has a clear plan for developing these skills."
Comments
JamieTheProp says...
I don't think Lancaster will have a problem dropping players! He has proved that he is very willing to pick on form (and drop because of lack of it).
There won't be any 'jobs for the boys' when he is around!
I think we should again look for improved performances in the Autumn with maybe a few wins and then start expecting us to really perform in the 6 Nations pushing Wales very, very close and after that start expecting England to be winning games and playing well.
Maybe not NZ (that will be a step too far) but certainly other Northern Hemisphere teams.
It's been a long time since we have seen good and consistent winning rugby from England - I'm hoping it is just around the corner!
Posted 12:51 10th September 2012
sirtidychris says...
Brilliant descision, Catt is one of our best rugby brains and makes up for the lack of international experience of Farrell and Lancaster, i think we are developing an exciting coaching team here. My only concerns are that the young coaching team will be too pally with the squad and wont be able to make the hard unpopular descisons dropping players when needed. My other concern is that they wont be given enough time and that they may be undermined again by the RFU which i doubt has chnaged much and may be unbalanced by the return of SCW now his olympic duties are coming to an end.
Posted 09:30 08th September 2012
jmanngod says...
well ... this is more likely than defense isn't it - the only big moment on defense he ever had was providing a 5% 'speed-bump'/gate for Jonah Lomu in 1995!
Posted 07:30 08th September 2012
melkdave says...
Has to be one of the worst kept secrets in rugby,Ithought this was confirmed months ago.That A.Farral ,and M.Catt would both be working with the backs with G.Rowntree with the forwards.A.Farral will be doing defence and general play ,so Catt can concentrate on attack,with the backs and forwards.Great defence these days means good line speed ,and 1st up tackling,and wining the breakdown ,while attack means wining the breakdown ,and moving the point of attack into space ect.Lets hope the coaches can instill both disaplines into England an a intergrated system ,for shfting from defence to attack and vice versa ,if so the future looks very good for England ,and english rugby imo.
Posted 21:41 07th September 2012