Wigan Warriors CEO Kris Radlinski has revealed he was part of the selection panel to appoint Brian McDermott as England’s head coach.
McDermott was confirmed last week to be guiding England in this year’s World Cup, after he got the job following a thorough process involving the RFL.
After Shaun Wane left his role in January, the governing body have been looking for his replacement ever since and they have now landed their man – doing so with the help of Radlinski.
Originally, a five-person panel was revealed, and it would be them to controlled the interview process.
Leeds Rhinos legend Kevin Sinfield and RFL Chair Nigel Wood were two of the names involved, as was the then-interim CEO of the RFL, Abi Ekoku.
However, Ekoku has now taken up the CEO role at St Helens, meaning he could no longer take part in the panel due to Paul Rowley being in the running for the job.
As a result, Radlinski stepped in, and he has since explained how that process worked after speaking on The Bench podcast earlier this week.
“I became involved two days before,” the Wigan CEO said. “Abi Ekoku was on the panel, but obviously he got a new role at St. Helens, which meant he was conflicted as his head coach was one of the candidates.
“…It was a pretty thorough process. Every candidate had to do a presentation and then we had probably 40-50 minutes asking questions to everybody.
“I have to say there was five people interviewed. Any one of them could have got the job that Brian [got].”
How Brian McDermott was appointed as England head coach
Explaining why the panel eventually chose McDermott for the role, he explained: “Brian’s a serial winner, incredible CV.
“I think he’s gone about his business in a quite unassuming way in the NRL, he’s got a real strong reputation for his delivery and his methods is a bit out there, Brian, everybody knows that.
“He interviewed very, very well. He’s a very proud Englishman.
“The challenge we’ve got is we’ve got six months to turn this round before the World Cup. One thing he spoke about was being the best prepared team.
“He’s got six months to get his team around him and to get to work, but it was good.”
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