Kevin Sinfield is set to remain involved in the England coaching set-up with Steve Borthwick hopeful that an agreement will be put in place for him to stay on in a part-time role.

Sinfield was Borthwick’s first appointment as head coach, joining him from Leicester Tigers originally as defence coach. However, Felix Jones has taken over that role this year with the Rugby Football Union announcing in January that Sinfield would take on a kicking and skills coach position until the end of the New Zealand tour when he was due to step down.

As Telegraph Sport reported last month, Sinfield was hoping to stay on, even with the appointment of Andrew Strawbridge as a skills consultant. Borthwick revealed that the former rugby league star will remain involved through to the start of England’s autumn campaign but wants him to continue after that.

“Kevin’s with us till the start of November and I’m hopeful that we will be able to find an agreement,” Borthwick said. “I think Kevin wants to continue his involvement with the team and I want him to continue to be involved with the team and I’m sure the players do. Hopefully when we get back to England we will be able to put something in place to keep that going.

“It won’t necessarily be in a full-time capacity but I am hoping to have him whenever we are in camp and have him involved as much as we can when we are in camp. He enjoys it and he adds tremendous value.”

Meanwhile Borthwick is set to discover the finer details of the enhanced Elite Player Squad contracts which will be unveiled as part of the Professional Game Agreement between the RFU and Premiership Rugby. The agreement was agreed in principle during England’s tour to New Zealand and is likely to be formally announced in coming weeks.

Until this point, Borthwick says that he has been relying on “goodwill” to manage the counterbalancing demands that club and country place upon players. “This has all been confirmed, the Is have been dotted and Ts have been crossed while I’ve been here,” Borthwick said. “My focus clearly has been on here. What it will give us is medically, and from a strength and conditioning point of view the players are in better condition when it comes to England playing games. Ultimately what we want is the best players playing in an England shirt in the best condition so we can compete with the best sides in the world. There’s been times in the short period that I’ve been in this role that players have been unavailable, or not been in the right condition, and it’s not necessarily been a position that’s been easy for them.

“Those individual development plans will be much more formalised, and we’ll be working with the clubs and the club coaches to ensure our players keep moving forward. Having experienced international, club, and then back to international, at club every day you take another step forward and at international you’re in camp but I now don’t see the players for a good time after tomorrow. This individual development plan will be really important to us.”

Crucially, however, that individual development plan will not give England any control over a player’s training or game load. Privately, England coaching staff are concerned about the lack of teeth within the agreement, however it should in theory prevent a repeat of Maro Itoje exceeding his game limit as he did this season with Saracens and England.

Borthwick was also left exasperated by discovering centre Ollie Lawrence had suffered an injury on the eve of his Six Nations squad announcement. “I’m not going to go into what could have been or should have been, as it’s a partnership between the clubs and the RFU with the player in the middle of it,” Borthwick said. “We all want what’s best for the player. What we need to do, and what I intend to do with my coaches is to work really closely with the clubs, and the club coaches.”

Borthwick anticipates that he will start offering the enhanced EPS or hybrid contracts at the start of the new Premiership season in September. Only Itoje and captain Jamie George have so far received an offer in principle and while Borthwick can offer up to 25 it is unlikely that the RFU will grant this many.

He also emphasised that players not granted a hybrid contract will still be able to break into the match-day squad. “The best players will be picked for the match 23 to get the result on the Saturday regardless of whether they have a central component in their contract. At that point in time every player will be recompensed equally.”