Lancaster or Mallett? England will decide today

Ian Ritchie, the Rugby Football Union’s new chief executive, has spent the past two days considering the recommendation of the five-man Professional Game Board panel as to who should succeed Martin Johnson as permanent England coach following their final meeting on Monday night. Ritchie chairs the panel, which includes Sir Ian McGeechan and Conor O’Shea, the respective directors of rugby at Bath and Harlequins, former England flanker Richard Hill, and the RFU’s professional game director, Rob Andrew, but he has the final say. He must then put his decision to the RFU board for formal endorsement before informing the successful candidate. Speculation that former South Africa coach Jake White is still involved in the process is understood to be wide of the mark. Both Lancaster and Mallett are thought to have delivered impressive interviews last week before Ritchie spent time alone with each candidate over dinner and lunch respectively. The chief executive must now decide whether the momentum ­created by Lancaster as interim coach during the Six Nations since the ­ disastrous World Cup campaign is preferable to Mallett’s heavyweight international experience as a former head coach of South Africa and Italy. Leicester fly-half Toby Flood yesterday became the latest England player to back Lancaster, who remains keen to retain his Six Nations coaching team of Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell if he is appointed. Flood, who made just one appearance in the Six Nations after missing the first two games because of a knee injury, admitted it was a tough ­decision for the RFU, but said ­ Lancaster had done an “excellent” job. “He [Lancaster] created an environment in which all the boys were keen to work hard for each other,” said Flood. “If you take into account what he has managed to do in such a short space of time, then he has to get the job. “He gave a lot of the younger guys a chance and he created a winning team that narrowly missed out on a Grand Slam in the game against Wales. But the RFU have to take all sorts of things into account, such as experience and knowledge of players, things that we do not know about as players.”