Budget, What Budget.

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When England went to Japan for the Rugby World Cup they had 23 players and 31 back room staff members. This is the lengths Eddie Jones goes to the create the perfect environment for all the players. No stone is left unturned and no expenses are spared when you are dealing with a professional unit like England.

You are probably wondering how the numbers stack up and what roles everyone plays. The obvious that we all know about would be the coaching unit with the main coach Eddie Jones and his numerous assistants taking charge of various specialist areas of the game.

Those guys don't add up anywhere near to 31 though as most teams have around 3 or 4 assistant coaches,a phsio,a doctor, a kit man and a manager that overseas any extras like travel arrangements. I was curious to see what Eddie had asked for to make his complete team and dug a little deeper.

1 Forwards coach,scrum coach,defensive coach,attack coach and a performance coach. That is 5 with Eddie as overall coach making 6 coaches. Most teams would have 2 or 3 combining roles and overlapping wherever possible. Still 25 more people to find though.

Every team needs a kitman plus a team manager,the team also has two operational managers for all things related to catering,travel, hotels and training facilities. That is 4 more people totaling 10 now.

The team has a legal councilor or barrister to help try and overturn any sanctions forced on the players for indiscretions on the field. A team doctor which is normal plus 3 physiotherapists.A specialist massage therapist and an osteopath who I think are underrated. They look after the bone side and had experience with them sorting out my back injury.We are up to 17 already now.

The team has 4 strength and conditioning coaches making sure the squad is as fit as possible. Eddie and the coaches don't want to be doing this as they want to be just coaching.Four though sounds rather a lot for 23 players. Throw in another 2 performance analysts who work on the data with their computers giving the coaching staff much needed information. The number has alarmingly progressed to 23 already which is the same number as the rugby squad.

The team employs two communication managers which liaise with the media. One of these guys was working for Jose Mourinho at Chelsea Football Club. Another two who are responsible for videoing and editing for training and match reviews. They are also responsible for social media keeping everyone informed. So I am losing track as we now hit 27 backroom staff.

We must not forget the security of the team and they have two more people handling that role. A chef who cooks for the team on their travels making sure the food meets the nutritionists requirements. Being fed at various training facilities as I am sure he doesn't cook but more likely oversees the food whilst staying at hotels so there is no food poisoning.
that is 30 now with one to go.

The last of the 31 is the partnerships manager which I have never heard of before and deals with friends and family of everyone plus the various sponsors involved. This sounds like a made up role in my opinion and a glorified PR but still that is a shed load of back room staff.

Now imagine going to stay in another country how many things you need just to move around as one unit. The 31 are all there for the 23 and looking at the various roles it may be a little overkill to some degree and I can't see other coaches being given their wish list like Eddie has. Most coaches would be chased away with demands like this. A precedent has been set though so England will most likely keep all these roles for future coaches.

South Africa are like the poor relatives as they had far fewer people behind the scenes. The conditioning coach and physiotherapist has just been offered the head coaching role which is rather amazing. I have spoken about this guy before and will do another post as he will be the only head coach allowed on the field due to his medical back ground.