An uplifting aspect of this weekend’s Prem final is the Englishmen who dominate the coaching staffs of the competing clubs: Northampton Saints and Exeter Chiefs.
This is not to decry the overseas coaches in charge of England’s football and cricket teams, but it must be a goal of a sport’s domestic system to at least put forward people ready to lead the national side.
Exeter’s Rob Baxter will have his backers if a vacancy ever crops up at Twickenham, but Phil Dowson of Northampton has strengths as a coach, manager and man that justify the training of a spotlight upon him.
No coach on the planet ticks every box as an ideal England boss. The Rugby Football Union have tried mid-contract sackings (Eddie Jones and Andy Robinson), and foreign targets not landed (Wayne Smith, Graham Henry, Warren Gatland) and ones that seem forever to get away (Shaun Edwards). Steve Borthwick is the incumbent, with a contract up to next year’s World Cup.
The 44-year-old Dowson possesses a “curious mind”, as Mark Darbon – the Northampton board member who was CEO when Dowson was appointed director of rugby in 2022 – describes him to The i Paper.
