Rugby: Waikato calls Mitchell

LONDON - England assistant rugby coach John Mitchell is returning to New Zealand in April to take up a post as Waikato's rugby development manager.

Mitchell has been England's assistant coach for more than two seasons and will help Clive Woodward to carry England's hopes in the inaugural Six Nations championships starting in February.

His last game will be against Scotland at Murrayfield on April 1 before returning to Hamilton after being involved in 38 tests with the England side.

Mitchell, a former All Black No 8 and midweek captain, played his last game for Waikato against Auckland in 1994 and has had a four-year involvement with English rugby.

He began as a player-coach for the Sale club, became England assistant coach and is now coaching London club Wasps, who are top of their pool in the European Cup competition.

Their last English championship game before Christmas is against Zinzan Brooke's Harlequins at Twickenham on Friday.

Mitchell said he believed there were now more opportunities to coach in New Zealand despite the trend of many coaches such as Alex Wyllie (Argentina), Graham Henry (Wales), Brad Johnstone (Fiji and now Italy) and Brooke to work overseas.

"I think there are more stepping-stones back home," he said. "I have been privileged to have coached England in 38 test matches but the hardest part was to play against New Zealand five times.

"I could hide behind my professional coaching career but obviously it was difficult.

"I'm now looking forward to putting something back into Waikato which was part of my rugby life for so many years.

"I can't think of a better place or better way to start my coaching career in New Zealand than to help out Waikato."

Mitchell said he had ambitions to coach the province and beyond, but wanted to take it slowly.

"I'm really excited by the opportunity after serving my apprenticeship up here. I just never planned to go as far as I did by coaching England. I have made a lot of good friends here and it will be sad to leave Wasps.

"I will be leaving behind some wonderful memories in this country which has an enormous amount of rugby talent.

"They rely here on the current structure to produce top players but competitions are not good enough to provide the right step up to international rugby. There's still a major gap."

Waikato Rugby Union chief executive officer Gary Dawson confirmed that Mitchell would take up the full-time role in April.

The job would involve developing coaches and players at club and junior level in the province as well as coaching Waikato's Development XV - the B team.

The union began talks with Mitchell when he visited earlier this year after the England rugby team's trip to Australia.

Dawson said: "In terms of international profile, this will certainly be a bit different for him, but he wants to come back to New Zealand, and particularly Waikato, and he will be a big asset for Waikato rugby."

- NZPA