Irish rugby fans won’t like who the RFU are eyeing up as a replacement for Stuart Lancaster

We've all accepted that at some point Joe Schmidt will leave Ireland but we hope he goes further than across the Irish Sea.

A Super Rugby franchise and then his native All Blacks was the career progression mapped out for the Ireland head coach (after he leads the 2017 British and Irish Lions, supposedly) but Midi Olympique are reporting a potential deviation from this plan. According to the French rugby paper the RFU are eyeing up Schmidt as a replacement for England head coach Stuart Lancaster, who the last time anyone checked was still in the job. Schmidt will this afternoon name his XV ahead of his biggest game in charge of Ireland, the World Cup quarter-final with Argentina. The New Zealander is contracted to the IRFU until 2017 and is very unlikely to break that agreement, even for the most high profile and well-remunerated job in world rugby. We hope.