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Rugby Union

Ashton "honoured & delighted"

20/12/2007

Brian Ashton has said he is "honoured and delighted" to be offered the chance to continue as the England rugby union head coach.

Elite rugby director Rob Andrew announced yesterday that Ashton would be given the opportunity to continue the work he undertook as coach during the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

The former Bath man led England to the final of the tournament, despite being dismissed as also-rans after a humiliating 36-0 defeat to eventual champions South Africa in the pool stages.

And in recognition of the work done by Ashton in turning around the fortunes of the team, Andrew says he has rewarded him with an "indefinite" contract with a "long-term project" in mind.

"We've got quite a lot of things that Brian and I need to fill in moving forward around various aspects of the support team and management team Brian wants around him," Andrew commented.

"We've looked at the personnel we've got and now we want to move forward with the coaching, management and support staff to get the right coaching team to build the next period in English rugby."

Ashton himself said it would be "foolish" to throw away the hard work the team and the management have put in during his 12-month tenure by instituting widespread changes ahead of the next four-year cycle.

He said: "I look at the way forward in three stages.

"One is the 2008 Six Nations and New Zealand tour; one is after that when the new agreement kicks-in between the clubs and countries; and then the next period is through to the 2009 tour to Argentina, when a number of our best players will be on the Lions tour so we will have to take some of our younger players away with us.

"Then we will be in a really good position, or we ought to be, to move forward to the World Cup in 2011."