Greenwood expects 'super coach' for Eng
England World Cup winner Will Greenwood believes the Rugby Football Union will appoint a "super coach" to replace Stuart Lancaster after the former boss stepped down as the side's head coach on Wednesday.
Lancaster paid the price for England becoming the first World Cup host nation to exit the tournament at the group stage.
When he was appointed in 2012, critics cited Lancaster's lack of elite coaching experience and Greenwood believes the Rugby Football Union will not appoint another relative novice now.
"There will be a variety of names put forward," Greenwood, a World Cup wining centre in 2003, told Sky Sports.
"I don't think they'd go with a young English coach who's not won big trophies yet.
"Long term, [Rob] Baxter of Exeter Chiefs will be one to keep an eye on. I hope they're monitoring him, mentoring him – he's worked wonders with Exeter Chiefs.
"But I think they will go with one of the super coaches, a coach that has won big tournaments, whether it be in Super Rugby, European Cups, Tri Nations, Rugby Championships, Grand Slams and even World Cups.
"That list appears to be Warren Gatland, Steve Hansen, Wayne Smith, Joe Schmidt, these sort of characters have vast pedigree in terms of winning major trophies."
Greenwood added England lacked the experience at the recent World Cup to compete with the game's top nations.
"I look back on it and I see the style in which Australia [beaten finalists] and [champions] New Zealand play, averaging 65 caps in that final.
"I just think that the young team were overawed.
"You can point to a variety of little incidents, back-row forwards giving away daft penalties against Wales, Brad Barritt – senior defensive guy – made a huge error and they didn't go for the points when the points were on offer.
"At key moments in games, when the pressure really came, they were unable to express themselves. We mustn't forget we were beating Wales 25-18 with 10 minutes to go and that would've been good enough for a quarterfinal berth.
"It's clear the team weren't able to deal with the intensity of this World Cup and even if they had made the quarterfinal, wouldn't have been able to go on and win the trophy."
Agence France-Presse
