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Steve Borthwick has brought in two of the Premiership’s highest-rated coaches for England’s summer tour - Getty Images/Glyn Kirk
Bath’s Lee Blackett and Sale Sharks’s Byron McGuigan will join Steve Borthwick’s coaching ticket for England’s tour to Argentina and the United States, Telegraph Sport can reveal.
With senior coach Richard Wigglesworth joining the Lions coaching team for the tour to Australia, Borthwick has brought in two of the Premiership’s highest-rated coaches. Blackett is the attack coach of Premiership leaders Bath, who boast the league’s most potent attack having plundered 83 tries and 568 points. He seems likely to take over from Wigglesworth during his secondment with the Lions.
McGuigan, meanwhile, was only appointed as Sale’s defence coach in November but has quickly established a reputation as one of the brightest minds in the English game. On Friday night, Sale’s defence limited fellow play-off chasers Saracens to a single try in their 25-7 victory at the AJ Bell Stadium. Afterwards, Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall was full of praise for Sale’s stifling defensive performance.
It is not clear what role McGuigan, who won 10 caps for Scotland as a winger, will perform with defence coach Joe El-Abd expected to go on the tour. England face Argentina in Buenos Aires on July 5 followed by a second Test against the Pumas in San Juan on July 12 before travelling to Washington to face the United States on July 19.
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Byron McGuigan represented Sale during his playing career and won 10 caps for Scotland - Action Images/Jason Cairnduff
England are expected to be missing a large contingent of players on the Lions tour which will provide opportunities for younger players to stake through. In the corresponding tour eight years ago, flanker Tom Curry made his Test debut.
Yet as much as the tour represents a chance for England to build their playing depth, it also provides an opportunity to expose the next generation of coaches to Test rugby. Conor O’Shea, the Rugby Football Union’s executive director of performance rugby, has been a driving force in providing more opportunities to young English coaches through the return of the England A team.
Blackett took charge of England A’s 28-12 victory over their Irish counterparts in February with the likes of Joe Carpenter, Curtis Langdon and Jack Kenningham among the players who featured in that match who may get an opportunity in South America.
Blackett was previously head coach of Rotherham and Wasps before they went into administration in 2022 and after a brief spell as backs coach at the Scarlets joined Bath as attack coach. In his first season, Bath reached the Premiership final and now look to go on better with Blackett forming a close relationship with fly-half Finn Russell.
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Lee Blackett is the attack coach of Premiership leaders Bath who boast the league’s most potent attack - Getty Images/Dan Mullan
McGuigan only retired in 2023 and immediately joined Sale’s backroom team having previously coached at local sides Sandbach, Bowdon and Rossendale. “I was never the fastest winger so I had to be the fastest thinker in terms of what the defence are trying to do before they do it,” McGuigan told Telegraph Sport. “I really enjoyed that part of the game and I took that into the amateur game where I was working on my messaging, my methodology and my systems.”
He took over as defence coach last November after Jamie Langley returned to rugby league and has racked up a number of statement performances, including the 38-0 win away to Bristol Bears, who were then the leaders of the Premiership.
Exciting duo give England a new dimension
Some coaching appointments are met with indifference. Occasionally, there is weariness or even hostility. These ones, for what is set to be a hugely intriguing and potentially significant tour for England, are bound to be extremely popular. Supporters may already be wondering whether Lee Blackett and Byron McGuigan can stay beyond the summer.
As two of the most highly respected coaches around the Premiership at the moment, they have been rewarded by Steve Borthwick at an opportune moment.
Promoting talented club coaches is a constructive policy and there is a neat sense of alignment at play, too. Blackett conducted England A’s attack for the win over Australia in November before overseeing the second string as head coach for a 28-12 defeat of Ireland in February at Ashton Gate. Despite wet conditions, the hosts exuded ambition and even unfurled a trick play or two.
An intrepid and largely accurate performance was an endorsement of Blackett. And while Finn Russell is Bath’s on-field general, they have progressed impressively as a collective this term. Tom Carr-Smith, Ciaran Donoghue and Will Butt are three young backs to have enjoyed breakthrough campaigns at senior level. Max Ojomoh and Will Muir have continued to excel, while Tom de Glanville has found another level. Bath, the Premiership Cup victors bidding for two more trophies, are up to 83 league tries. Bristol Bears are next, seven behind on 76.
Wigglesworth has perhaps not received due credit for his influence on England’s attack. They finished the Six Nations with 25 tries and have scored 14 across their four most recent meetings with France and Ireland, two stout opponents. But in the absence of Wigglesworth, who will head to Australia with the British and Irish Lions as one of Andy Farrell’s assistants, the affable Blackett will roll his sleeves up and offer a different perspective.
However McGuigan dovetails with Joe El-Abd, he can be expected to inject a degree of aggression into the defence. Having bailed on the blitz in the wake of Felix Jones’s departure and an iffy autumn, England prioritised connections over line-speed during the Six Nations. In layman’s terms, they drifted from in to out more than they bolted from out to in.
Sale are not reckless with their line-speed, but they certainly press hard and aim to hit carriers backwards. One might call their approach a slightly tempered blitz. At their best, they marry bristling energy with sharp decisions around the breakdown. Whether or not they compete on the floor, they work hard to keep bodies on their feet and maintain as much width as possible in the front line. Against Saracens, their back three – Arron Reed, Joe Carpenter and Tom Roebuck – epitomised their collective defensive desire with big moments out wide.
Next week, when Farrell unveils his Lions squad, will bring a clearer picture of which players will be in the shake-up for England’s trip to Argentina and the USA. Winning a two-Test series against the Pumas, who can beat anyone on the planet, would be a huge achievement for what will be a young side. But bringing in Blackett and McGuigan should give them every chance.
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