Eddie Jones, Stuart Lancaster, Martin Johnson, Brian Ashton, Andy Robinson … you have to go all the wayback to Clive Woodward in 1997 to find someone who was employed within the domestic club game at the time of his appointment. To have masterminded three Champions Cup final successes in four years, as Mark McCall has done for Saracens, is one heck of a CV even before Saracens’ haul of Premiership titles is taken into account. Not only does McCall command respect across the English game but he already has the ear of several key players – Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Billy and MakoVunipola – who will be central to England’s medium-term fortunes. Gallery: Predicted England squad for the Rugby World Cup (Read Sport) The million-dollar question (no salary cap jokes, please) is whether McCall will ever be prised away from his existing role. He’s always making sure we’re ready for every scenario and everysituation.” The Saracens’ scrum-half Richard Wigglesworth paints a similar picture, describing a man who ideally prefers his players to shape their own destiny. How do you get this out?’ He is not a big guy for Churchill speeches, he is nottelling you: ‘This is how this is going to happen.’ It all adds up to a very, very diligent man who leaves no stone unturned.” Small wonder the RFU is increasingly interested. With Baxter also having indicated he still has unfinished business in Exeter, landing McCall would save the new RFU chief executive, Bill Sweeney, from having to take another expensive punt on someone with sketchy knowledge of the English game. Appointing John Mitchell or Jim Mallinder – about to take charge of a shadow England XV to face the Barbarians – would involve a simpler rearrangement of the Twickenham furniture but neither of them has the 51-year-old McCall’s track record. Warren Gatland is now signed up for another Lions tour of duty, the soon-to-depart All Blacks coach, Steve Hansen, almost certainly hasother fish to fry.
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