Paul Gustard to join Steve Borthwick in Eddie Jones’ all-new England coaching set-up

Paul Gustard, one of the high-calibre coaching team behind Saracens’ vice-like grip on affairs at Premiership level, will join the England set-up well ahead of the forthcoming Six Nations Championship if business arrangements between club and country are concluded satisfactorily.

The architect of the domestic champions’ renowned “wolf pack” defence has been offered a role by the new red-rose boss Eddie Jones and negotiations are in progress.

It is now clear that Jones, the Australian “supercoach” head-hunted by the Rugby Football Union to succeed Stuart Lancaster in the top job, is cleaning the Twickenham stables with a vengeance. The governing body is expected to confirm on Monday that Lancaster’s lieutenants – the backs strategist Andy Farrell, the forwards specialist Graham Rowntree and the attacking skills expert Mike Catt – are yesterday’s men.

Steve Borthwick, the former national captain whose treatment by the England hierarchy at the back end of his Test career was just about as crass as it was possible to imagine, is also Twickenham-bound, although the detail of his early release from second-tier Bristol, where he has made a significant impact in recent weeks, is not yet clear. The West Countrymen want him to play an active, if intermittent, part in their promotion campaign before cutting ties for good.

After retiring from playing at the end of the 2013-14 season, Borthwick worked under Jones in Japan – a partnership that resulted in the Asian champions’ remarkable display at the World Cup, where they won three of their four pool matches. He is expected to be the head man’s second in command, with Gustard bringing his hard-edged expertise to a variety of forward disciplines, as well as constructing the barricades.

“Paul has been made an offer to become an assistant coach with England and is considering it,” confirmed Mark McCall, the Saracens rugby director, after the North Londoners’ comprehensive European Champions Cup victory in Oyonnax yesterday. “I’m sure there will be some dealings between the RFU and ourselves over the next 24 to 48 hours.”

Jones is perfectly capable of addressing England’s attacking game – hardly the strongest suit in the red-rose hand – without the aid of a specialist backs coach, but the indications are that the search is on for some support in this area. A number of candidates have been floated, including Alex King of Northampton and Ali Hepher of Exeter, but there has been no sign of any white smoke in this regard.

One leading player Jones will have to do without – maybe for good – is the Lions Test prop Alex Corbisiero, whose chronic knee problems have not only forced him into another of his regular bouts of surgery, but persuaded him to take a year out of the game. He will not be renewing his current contract with Northampton.