Stuart Lancaster quits as England coach: The wallet's open but who'd want the job?

The likely candidates: Michael Cheika, Warren Gatland and Jake White. Photos / Getty Images

English rugby continues to implode after the World Cup disaster on home soil with coach Stuart Lancaster falling on his sword and players bickering.

England, who were eliminated in the pool stage, appears in a fragile place and there are no immediately outstanding candidates to take over the game's richest international team, according to the nation's press.

Money remains no object, but in England's case extreme wealth is not an advantage that has worked all that well although it is a no-limit credit card they continue to play.

The England rugby chief executive Ian Ritchie said the union would open its wallet far and wide to get "the best possible coach" and would take whatever time needed to lure that person. They wanted a coach who already had "international experience".

"It's not a matter of financial consideration - we'll do it without any inhibition," said Ritchie.

Fallout over the Sam Burgess disaster continued to "haunt" Lancaster, according to the Daily Mail, the rushed World Cup recruit having quit union this week for a return to league.

The Guardian listed six potential replacements for Lancaster, but then went on to rate all of them as slight or limited possibilities in terms of what they offered or availability.

Bookies rate South Africa's World Cup winner Jake White as favourite, but the paper said that was "not an appointment that would generate any real excitement".

The best it could offer was suggesting Australian Eddie Jones as "the likeliest" ahead of Sir Clive Woodward, Michael Cheika, Warren Gatland and successful Northampton boss Jim Mallinder who has coached the national under-20 team. Others such as Bath coach Mike Ford have been named as possibilities elsewhere even though they don't meet the international experience criteria.

England should "move heaven and earth" to lure Sir Graham Henry after Stuart Lancaster left his coaching post, according to former British and Irish Lions halfback Dewi Morris. Henry's work with Argentina, having joined the Pumas' backroom staff in 2012, made him an appealing prospect to take over the England job, Morris wrote on Sky Sports.

"So who do England turn to next? Well the man I think England should move heaven and earth to get is Graham Henry. I don't think they will but look at what he has done with Argentina. We all know what he has done with New Zealand but he has been working with the Pumas as a consultant and has been key in changing their focus and the way they attack. It's no coincidence that he has worked with them and they were one of the success stories of the World Cup."

Meanwhile Brown went on the rampage about leaks from within the England squad, the Daily Telegraph reporting him as saying "the trust has gone".

"I don't think anyone was good enough in an England shirt to be piping up saying: 'This was wrong, that was wrong' and that sort of thing," Brown said.

"If they are going to say something, I think they should put their name to it.

"It will come out who it was at the end of the day so it will be interesting. When it does I will be one of the first people to speak to them."