It has been widely reported that Stuart Lancaster visited Smith during the Waikato Chiefs tour of South Africa last week to outline his vision of England progress over the next four years (as can be seen here : Pyramid of Success) and Lancaster offered Smith a variety of roles including surprisingly... the head coaching position. While it initially appeared that just an assistant's job was on the table, it now seems that if he were to accept Lancaster's offer, he would have a far more wide-ranging role with a lot more influence than initially perceived.
Asked if the role he had been offered involved coaching the England backs, defence or was a head coaching position, Smith replied 'all of the above suggestions'.
Therefore if Smith were to take over as Head Coach, Lancaster might move into a 'Director of Coaching' role taking charge of strategy and allignment, while Smith takes on the more 'tracksuited' role. The idea i'm sure is one which would whet Smith's appetite and he seems to have a good rapport with Lancaster judging by his comments to the media.
The Waikato coach remarked about Lancaster:
"He's very humble and he knows what needs to be done over there because it's not just about coaching the players as we have have found out over here with the All Blacks. It's alligning all your provincial coaches and club coaches becuase they're the people coaching your players. Getting them on-side and getting the buy-in to the national team being strong and vibrant and challenging the best in the world is pretty important."
So it sounds like Lancaster has a big vision, including changing the general style of attacking play in the Aviva Premiership...a very tall ask indeed, but you have to applaud his ambition. The problem will be that whereas in NZ, the players are contracted by the NZRU and leased to their Super Rugby franchises(and therefore have the All Blacks preferences at the forefront), in England the players are paid by their clubs. Therefore the Club v County row seems to surface often and no previous coach has really been able to solve it. Lancaster may be biting off more than he can chew, but you can't say that he isn't going to go down fighting in his attempts to restructure English rugby.
In the mean time, Smith has claimed that there are three issues he has to consider before deciding whether to take on the job:
1. The impact on his family
2. His obligation oto the Waikato Chiefs (with which he has a 2 year contract)
3. Whether he could coach an International side against the All Blacks (after spending the last 8 years helping guide them to eventual World Cup Success last year)
If Smith can find it within himself to devote himself to England's cause, the future looks very rosy indeed.
England would have a man-manager who can outline a vision for progression in Stuart Lancaster and a Head Coach in Smith who has a vast technical knowledge both in attacking play and in defence (as seen with the Chiefs this year). Smith has said that he will take the next 10 days to contemplate the offer.
Campese putting his hand up
Campese has generally been a rather harsh critic of English rugby, even when they were dominating during Clive Woordward's era. He famously had to walk through London with a placard on his chest saying 'I admit, the best team won' after he bet on national TV that England wouldn't win the 2003 World Cup. However, he believes he has the skills and attitude to add a new dimension to England's usual forwards oriented game.
"This isn't a joke", he said to the Times newspaper. "People will say oh there's Camp sounding off again, but that's not the case'. Even if it was just in an advisory role Campo would supposedly be interested and coming from a legend of the game that offer should not be sniffed at. "I would love to help out if they were interested in talking to me" he said.
Who would you like to see in either role?
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