Rugby: Will Greenwood backs England head coach Stuart Lancaster's contract extension

Sky Sports rugby pundit Will Greenwood has backed the decision by the Rugby Football Union to extend England head coach Stuart Lancaster's contract until 2019.

England’s coaching team of forwards coach Graham Rowntree, backs coach Andy Farrell and attacking skills coach Mike Catt have also now been contracted until the 2019 World Cup in Japan.

Lancaster will lead England into next year’s tournament on home soil but faces a difficult battle to reach the knockout stages with Wales and Australia also drawn in the same group.

Some concerns have been raised about the position England will be in if the team does not perform as expected but Greenwood feels the increased security the coaching staff now has will give them a huge boost.

“This allows Stuart and his team to attack next year’s World Cup with a feeling of stability,” Greenwood said.

“I don’t think it matters what job you are in, if you are always considering ‘what happens in six months?’, ‘what happens if we only make a quarter-final – where am I left then?’, then you won’t be at your best.

“It just allows them to go into it, not with any complacency, but with a degree of comfort that they can deliver their job well and know that they are being supported.”

The work of former England internationals Farrell, Catt and Rowntree has been identified by many as a key factor in England’s improvement under Lancaster.

Greenwood believes it is important to tie their futures down now in order to avoid the risk of losing them after the World Cup.

“They are keen to tie down not just Stuart Lancaster but the whole of the coaching staff that includes Farrell, Rowntree and Catt,” he said.

“Things are moving on in the club game in a pretty major way when you consider wage caps are being pushed back in the Aviva Premiership.

“Abroad in France there is a huge amount of money from individual investors and the Celtic game is beginning to grow and attract some of the star names from across the world.

“Some of these top international coaches of the calibre of Farrell, Catt and Rowntree – who are still very young – might be major targets for these sorts of clubs were England to do well in the World Cup.”

There have been some high-profile examples in recent years of coaches not meeting expectations at their first World Cup in charge but doing very well in their second with more time to build a team.

The last time the tournament was held in England in 1999, the host nation lost 44-21 to South Africa in the quarter-finals under Clive Woodward, before being crowned world champions in Australia in 2003.

Graham Henry’s much-fancied All Blacks lost to France in the quarter-finals in 2007 but the coach was kept on and delivered the Webb Ellis Cup four years later.

Greenwood does not expect England to underperform under Lancaster but, regardless of what happens, he feels the RFU’s long-term vision is the right way to move forward.

“They are not the perfect team,” he said. “They are trying to build towards that target when it gets to the World Cup.

“Clive Woodward asked to be judged on 1999 and he was given a second chance for 2003.

“Graham Henry suffered a disaster in 2007 when the All Blacks were knocked out by France in the quarter-finals at the Millennium Stadium but was given another chance.

“I think governing bodies have seen that coaches need two World Cups to allow them to really build.”