\n<\/p>\n
The Rugby Football Union has no plans to begin talks with Steve \u00adBorthwick over extending his \u00adcontract beyond 2027 \u201cfor the \u00adforeseeable future\u201d despite England\u2019s 11-match winning streak and autumn clean sweep.<\/p>\n
Borthwick\u2019s contract runs until the end of 2027 but with England halfway through the current World Cup cycle and currently third in the world \u00adrankings, the RFU chief \u00adexecutive, Bill Sweeney, has no immediate intention of discussing an extension in a sea change from the union\u2019s \u00adprevious approach.<\/p>\n
During his tenure, Sweeney has made it a priority to improve England\u2019s succession planning, appointing Nigel Redman as team performance director, but the chief executive has raised the prospect of Borthwick heading into the 2027 World Cup unclear if he will continue beyond the competition.<\/p>\n
Indeed, with a little more than 18 months and only 17 matches before England begin World Cup preparations, Sweeney is in no rush to tie Borthwick down.<\/p>\n
Borthwick\u2019s predecessor, Eddie Jones, was appointed in late 2015 through to the 2019 World Cup but in January 2018 his contract was extended through to 2021 by the then chief executive, Steve Brown. After taking England to the World Cup final in 2019, Jones\u2019s contract was further extended in early 2020 through to 2023 by Sweeney before he was sacked in late 2022.<\/p>\n
Before Jones, Stuart Lancaster was initially appointed on an interim basis but was appointed full-time after the 2012 Six Nations on a four-year deal. In October 2014, however, Lancaster was given a new long-term contract until 2020, only for England to bomb at their home World Cup in 2015, prompting his exit.<\/p>\n
Borthwick\u2019s stock has never been higher as head coach after finishing 2025 with victory over Argentina on Sunday. The 46-year-old came under pressure in 2024 after a series of narrow defeats left England ranked seventh in the world but having won every match since beginning 2025 with a defeat in Dublin, there is optimism he will end England\u2019s five-year wait for a Six Nations title next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously back this coaching group and are really happy with it,\u201d said Sweeney. \u201cWe haven\u2019t had those conversations now, and we are not planning to in the foreseeable future, no. His contract goes through to 2027. We are obviously delighted with the direction it is going in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe actually saw it in 2024. It\u2019s easy with hindsight now, but those narrow losses in 24, we knew the trajectory the team was on. Narrow loss to Australia, the loss to New Zealand that could have gone the other way. I think what you\u2019ve seen this year with the depth that the squad is building, the style of play he is developing, we are really happy with that. We haven\u2019t got into any discussions about post-27.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sweeney was speaking after the release of the RFU\u2019s latest annual report which shows a net loss of \u00a31.9m for the financial year after generating the second-highest revenue in its history. The accounts show a far more secure picture than the previous year\u2019s which reported losses of \u00a342m \u2013 largely due to fewer home fixtures because of the World Cup. Last year\u2019s report prompted a scandal over Sweeney\u2019s \u00a3358,000 bonus that took his earnings to \u00a31.1m. The latest accounts show that Sweeney was paid \u00a3702,000, down \u00a340,000 on his previous basic salary.<\/p>\n
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Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n <\/span>Bill Sweeney, pictured with Jamie George, is confident the RFU will win its battle with Richmond council over Twickenham.<\/span> Photograph: Dan Mullan\/RFU\/The RFU Collection\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Sweeney, meanwhile, has expressed confidence that Richmond council will next May grant the RFU permission to host up to 15 concerts a year, which would enable the union to fund a \u00a3660m revamp of Twickenham. He insisted that staying remains the RFU\u2019s \u201cplan A\u201d but again warned other options are on the table if \u00adRichmond council rules against the union. Wembley is understood to be among those options while \u00adBirmingham City have unveiled plans for a new stadium and expressed an \u00adinterest in hosting rugby.<\/p>\n The RFU\u2019s preference is to stay at Twickenham but, as revealed by the Guardian, the union was dealt a blow when Richmond council decreed that the limit of three non-sporting events \u2013 and only one not on a Saturday \u2013 must remain. Licensing and planning applications are run in parallel and the RFU will still make a planning application next year and, if successful, reapply for a new licence.<\/p>\n \u201cI met with Richmond a couple of weeks ago,\u201d said Sweeney. \u201cGood conversations, good dialogue. Very positive. They want to support us in terms of the direction we\u2019re going in but it\u2019s a process that\u2019s on track. We\u2019ve laid out very clearly for them what it means for us. Those events are essential for us if we\u2019re to reinvest in the stadium and the stadium needs reinvestment to keep pace with other stadiums. It\u2019s not a grandstanding negotiation tactic.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd our plan A is to stay. We contribute over \u00a390m to the local economy and well over \u00a3100m to the greater London economy. They want us to stay here but purely from a financial validity point, it\u2019s essential we get those extra events. I\u2019m confident. You can\u2019t put all your eggs in one basket, so you have to have a plan B and even a plan C and D which are viable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re confident with the plans that we\u2019ve got in place. We\u2019re confident we can attract all the rugby events we want here and sufficient entertainment events as well. If we get those 15, it\u2019s a very financially viable model.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Rugby Football Union has no plans to begin talks with Steve \u00adBorthwick over extending his \u00adcontract beyond 2027 \u201cfor the \u00adforeseeable future\u201d despite England\u2019s 11-match winning streak and autumn clean sweep. Borthwick\u2019s contract runs until the end of 2027 but with England halfway through the current World Cup cycle and currently third in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35185,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[19870,1571,311,2265,480,5871,6285,1905,2719,4657],"class_list":{"0":"post-35184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-borthwicks","9":"tag-contract","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-extend","12":"tag-plans","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-streak","15":"tag-team","16":"tag-union","17":"tag-winning"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}