{"id":349205,"date":"2025-12-15T08:52:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349205\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T08:52:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T08:52:08","slug":"england-could-be-forced-into-pre-world-cup-coaching-reshuffle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/349205\/","title":{"rendered":"England could be forced into pre-World Cup coaching reshuffle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/england\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">England<\/a> coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/steve-borthwick\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Steve Borthwick<\/a> could be forced into yet another coaching re-shuffle after forwards coach Joe El-Abd held talks with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/pro-d2\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pro D2<\/a> side <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/brive\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Brive<\/a> about returning to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/france\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">France<\/a> next season.<\/p>\n<p>El-Abd, 45, took up a role with Borthwick, a former housemate from their teenage university days, in September 2024, replacing Felix Jones as defence coach, who resigned after only seven months in the role.<\/p>\n<p>The former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bristol\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bristol<\/a> flanker said at the time that he was in it for the long haul after a disruption caused by Kevin Sinfield moving to skills and kicking from defence, and the departures of Aled Walters and Tom Tombleson. \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brighton-born El-Abd told BBC Radio Five Live at the time: \u201cI\u2019m here for the long haul, definitely. It is so exciting to have this role at this time. It is a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It has been reported by Midi Olympique in France that El-Abd, who led <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/oyonnax\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oyonnax<\/a> to the Pro D2 title in 2023, isn\u2019t happy with his responsibilities within Borthwick\u2019s coaching team after being put in charge of the forwards and held a video conference call with Brive\u2019s management following England\u2019s unbeaten <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/autumn-nations-series\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Autumn Nations Series<\/a> campaign.<\/p>\n<p>El-Abd, who is under contract with Englnd until after the 2027 World Cup in Australia, moved to France in 2009 when he joined <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/toulon\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Toulon<\/a> from Bristol and transitioned into coaching with Oyonnax after ending his playing career with the Stade Charles-Mathon-based side five years later.<\/p>\n<p>He then spent four seasons with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/castres\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Castres<\/a> before returning to Oyonnax for the 2019\/20 season as director of rugby with responsibility for the defence. <\/p>\n<p>El-Abd was appointed as England\u2019s defence coach in September 2024 but only on a part-time basis as he continued to work for Oyonnax until the end of that season. After balancing two jobs for 10 minths, El-Abd became a full-time member of Steve Borthwick\u2019s staff in the summer of this year.<\/p>\n<p>Borthwick would have hoped he had seen the last of the changes when Lee Blackett was appointed attack coach in September, leading to senior assistant coach <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/richard-wigglesworth\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Richard Wigglesworth<\/a> moving across to take charge of the defence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England coach Steve Borthwick could be forced into yet another coaching re-shuffle after forwards coach Joe El-Abd held&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-349205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}