Official: Proudfoot trades Boks for England

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Former Springbok assistant coach Matt Proudfoot has been confirmed as one of Eddie Jones’ new assistant coaches in the England camp.

Proudfoot will take over as England forwards coach, having occupied a similar role within the Springbok set-up from 2016 until now. The 47-year-old former prop was part of Rassie Erasmus’ backroom staff during the Boks’ successful World Cup campaign in Japan last year, and he now joins the RFU after his contract with SA Rugby was concluded.

‘England is probably the best team in world rugby to coach. Having coached against them you get to respect their identity, so to get the opportunity to be part of that is a huge honour and privilege,’ Proudfoot said of his move.

‘I am really grateful to Eddie [Jones], the rest of the coaching staff and the RFU to be given this chance. It is a decision I took with great humility and responsibility; I know there is a huge legacy to live up to. I look forward to taking that challenge on and doing England proud.’

Jones said the Six Nations is a fresh start for England, hence the new coaching staff: ‘With Neal Hatley [scrum coach] moving to Bath we felt we needed to regenerate the forwards coaching area. Matt Proudfoot has had an outstanding coaching career to date, culminating in being a World Cup-winning coach with South Africa.

‘He brings great technical expertise and knowledge having coached in South Africa and Japan and having played in Scotland and South Africa. We feel he can take the forwards to another level and build on the great work Neal and Steve have done over the last four years.’

Apart from the addition of Proudfoot, Simon Amor comes in as England’s new attack coach after Scott Wisemantel vacated the position to join the Wallabies.

John Mitchell will continue in his role as defence coach, while Steve Borthwick moves from forwards coach to skills coach.


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Photo: Brendan Moran/Getty Images

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