Martin Johnson's replacement as England manager must be prepared to work under Rob Andrew's oversight after the Rugby Football Union's rugby operations director defied calls to consider his position.
Johnson announced at a Twickenham press conference on Wednesday that he will step down as England manager with immediate effect. Under current structures Andrew is head of the department that oversees the England team and was the man assigned to hire Johnson, then the most inexperienced coach in international rugby, to take the 2007 World Cup finalists through to this year's tournament in New Zealand.
It ended in humiliation after the quarter-final defeat by France was compounded by high-profile incidents involving Johnson's players. Andrew, who has been at the RFU for six years and reportedly earns more than £200,000 a year, was asked on Wednesday if he would step aside to allow the best candidate to fill the role for the benefit of the England team. "No," he replied.
"It is a complete lack of understanding of structure. I am not sure how many of you worked in business and how structures work, and how reporting lines work and how a multimillion-pound operation actually functions in terms of reporting lines.
"Martin's unit is a self-contained unit within the elite rugby department running the England team. That is about a fifth of the responsibilities I have in running the biggest department of the union, from a financial point of view.
"If anyone wants to come and discuss all the detail of that and understand what structure is, as opposed to perception, then please come and talk to me about it.
"Now the decision has been taken by Martin, we will go and find the next England head coach. Clearly we need to do that as quickly as we possibly can."
Nick Mallett, the coach who led South Africa to a record 17 Test wins between 1997 and 1999, certainly has his own perceptions about Andrew's role and said last week: "The head coach should answer to the management board, not to a director of rugby who may have less experience."
Yet the RFU's senior management has been in turmoil over the past 12 months. The previous chief executive, John Steele, was sacked after it was claimed he acted beyond the scope his board had permitted him – which was later disproved by an internal review. The chairman, Martyn Thomas, moved to replace him as chief executive and is now a lame duck set to be removed next month.
The chairman, Paul Murphy, was on Wednesday conspicuously absent from the top table, where only Andrew and Johnson were made available for questioning. Whether Andrew will be in post by the time the Six Nations comes around next February is moot. Another internal review, this time of the World Cup performance, will be discussed at a meeting of the Professional Game Board (PGB) on Thursday. That will be followed in the new year by an independent review of Andrew's elite rugby department.
Asked if he takes responsibility for England's World Cup performance, Andrew responded: "Absolutely – in terms of the department and the structure of the professional game, and that's the understanding of my role in this. I'm absolutely not considering resigning."
Although there remain only six weeks before the squad lists for the Six Nations must be lodged with Premiership Rugby, Andrew counselled against a swift appointment to succeed Johnson. "There's an internal PGB group that will be set up and we'll look at candidates over a period of time," he said. "How long that will be I don't know.
"I don't like putting deadlines on things because you just don't know how long it is going to take in terms of contracts, who we need to speak to, how we get this thing moving in order to make recommendations to the RFU board. This is an RFU board appointment. The England head coach is an RFU employee."
