Brad Arthur sends message to RFL over England role and need for decision

Leeds Rhinos head coach Brad Arthur has reiterated he would still be interested in holding talks over becoming the England coach – but insists any decision needs to be made by the RFL ‘sooner rather than later’.

Arthur is one of the frontrunners to potentially succeed Shaun Wane in the autumn for this year’s World Cup – perhaps even more so now that Willie Peters has officially taken himself out of contention.

The Leeds boss has previously admitted a conversation about the job would appeal to him owing to the fact it will revert to a part-time position, a stance he confirmed again on Wednesday during his latest pre-match press conference.

But the Australian warned that there should realistically be progress soon to allow the national team the best chance of success in the World Cup, a tournament which is now just six months away – and says whether it is him or anyone else who takes charge, something needs to move forwards soon.

“I know as much as you, probably less than you to be honest,” Arthur told Love Rugby League.

“I’m still interested in having a conversation about it, yeah.”

When asked if any potential candidate was running out of time to get the correct structures in place to allow England to succeed, Arthur said: “I wouldn’t be leaving it too much longer, yeah.

“Whoever the coach is wants to have a fair opportunity to get it right. I would think that it needs to happen sooner rather than later.”

Leeds head to local rivals Bradford this weekend for the first Super League derby between the pair in 12 years, and Arthur admitted he will slightly tweak his side for the game, most likely in the forwards after a big display against Warrington last Sunday.

“There’ll be a couple of little adjustments. We just want to share the workload a little bit. Our middles did a good job starting the game with the amount of ball we didn’t have, so we’ve got to share that. There’ll be a couple of variations to the team.”