Leicester Tigers quote England an eye-watering price for coaching trio

Leicester Tigers will demand £2 million in compensation from the Rugby Football Union should the governing body attempt to raid their coaching staff, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

The reigning Premiership champions have made no secret of the fact that they will not stand in the way of their head coach, Steve Borthwick, taking the England reins, but there is an increasing reluctance at Welford Road to allow the highly regarded duo of Kevin Sinfield, the defence coach, and Aled Walters, the strength and conditioning coach, to depart alongside Borthwick, unless a hefty severance package is paid.

The RFU is already set to make a payoff of £1 million to Eddie Jones, who was sacked as England head coach on Tuesday by chief executive Bill Sweeney, and to pay a figure understood to be in excess of £200,000 to buy out the remainder of Borthwick’s Leicester contract.

Telegraph Sport revealed on Tuesday that Borthwick was expected to be confirmed as Jones’s successor by the end of this week after the RFU opened formal negotiations with his club.

It is understood that the Tigers have not yet had an official approach for the services of Sinfield and Walters but, should one be forthcoming from the RFU, Leicester would stipulate a £2 million compensation package for the duo, plus Borthwick, to soften the blow of losing three of their most respected coaches halfway through a season in which they are on the periphery of the Premiership play-off places.

The Tigers, who were led to their first Premiership title in nine years by Borthwick and his assistants, are also fearful of an approach for player-coach Richard Wigglesworth, the former England scrum-half, who is a close ally of their head coach.

Leicester’s stance has created a testing predicament for the RFU. Jones’s assistants, Richard Cockerill, Matt Proudfoot, Martin Gleeson and Brett Hodgson, all remain in post, with the former in interim charge, and paying off that quartet as well as meeting

Leicester’s compensation demand would be a tough financial ask for a union that is still attempting to recover from the effects of the Covid pandemic.

It is also understood that several RFU council members are growing increasingly concerned about how much the governing body is spending on the England senior men’s team, and a full-scale refresh of backroom staff will do nothing to placate those with concerns.

One possible scenario for the RFU could involve Borthwick taking charge of next year’s Six Nations Championship alongside the current coaching staff, before the arrival of Walters and Sinfield at the end of Leicester’s season, once they have served their notice periods – understood to be six months – with the Tigers.

Such an arrangement would give Leicester the time to find suitable replacements for their backroom staff, if they were to follow the head coach, without any departures – Borthwick aside – hampering the current campaign.

Borthwick’s Leicester are due to face Ospreys in the opening round of the Champions Cup on Sunday, and the feeling at Welford Road is that the RFU’s dithering is doing little to help preparation for that match.

Although the expectation is that Borthwick will be formally announced as the next England head coach by the end of the week, Leicester had no communication from the RFU yesterday regarding the negotiation with Borthwick, following the first official approach on Tuesday when Sweeney contacted the Tigers’ chief executive, Andrea Pinchen.

Meanwhile, it is understood that both Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby, and George Skivington, the Gloucester head coach, were being discussed by the RFU as potential replacements for Jones if Borthwick were to elect to remain with Leicester.

Baxter ruled himself out of contention yesterday, however, as the Chiefs announced that their coaching team – Baxter, Ali Hepher, Rob Hunter and Ricky Pellow – had all committed to long-term deals with the club.

Elsewhere, Courtney Lawes, Jones’ first-choice England captain, is nearing a return to action for Northampton. Phil Dowson, the Saints director of rugby, confirmed on Wednesday that Lawes had been in full training for two weeks and was close to making a full return. “Courtney knows Courtney better than anyone else so when he says he's ready then he'll be involved,” Dowson said.