Wales bid to keep Shaun Edwards from RFU

Wales have presented Shaun Edwards with a brand new contract and asked him to sign on for four more years.
The Red Dragons‘ favourite Englishman received the final draft amid mounting intrigue over the future of his senior partner in the game’s most productive double act, Warren Gatland.
The WRU’s move to secure Edwards for one more World Cup shows their determination to secure the services of a defence coach with an enviable reputation throughout the rugby world.
Edwards, whose current deal runs out in a fortnight’s time, has been widely touted as one of the RFU‘s supposed ‘dream team’ to run England in the wake of Stuart Lancaster‘s resignation.
Despite reports that no offer had been made to Edwards, The Rugby Paper can reveal that the WRU moved decisively as soon as Gatland made it clear he wanted the former Wigan superstar to remain part of his coaching regime.
Persistent reports claiming the RFU have made Gatland their top target prompted WRU chairman Gareth Davies to issue a statement on Friday afternoon saying that the New Zealander would be going nowhere.
Gatland’s contract runs through to the end of the next World Cup in Japan in 2019. Money may be no object for the world’s richest Union, but it would cost the RFU around £1.5m to buy the 52-year-old Kiwi out of his contract.
A four-year deal for a coach of his standing would raise the overall cost of hiring his services towards £4m, with Gatland already believed to be the highest paid international coach at more than £400,000-a-year
The WRU hope to announce within the next fortnight that Edwards will be staying put.
Any delay beyond that would increase Welsh anxiety and prompt fears of Edwards stalling while England decide whether or not to make him an offer, given he is virtually a free agent.
They lost him to Wales in January 2008, two years after then England coach Andy Robinson sounded him out about joining his coaching team.
Rob Andrew, the RFU’s then newly-appointed director of rugby, offered Edwards a part-time role in charge of England’s second-string Saxons, which he turned down before leaving Wasps to rejoin Gatland in Cardiff.
Their partnership has flourished, highlighted by two Welsh Grand Slams in four years – twice as many as England have managed in the last 20. As a duo, they survived the fractured relationship caused by Gatland’s preference for Andy Farrell as defence coach on the last Lions tour.
Edwards has made no secret of his ambition to be part of the Lions coaching team for their next tour, to New Zealand in 2017. The choice of head coach is a two-horse race between Gatland and another Kiwi, Ireland’s Joe Schmidt.
Should Gatland get the nod on the strength of a winning Wales in the Six Nations, the WRU will not object to the Lions’ request that their main man steps down from international affairs throughout next season to take an objective look at all four national teams.
Wales gave Gatland a season off before the last Lions tour, to Australia in 2013.   The RFU would be in no position to give their new coach a season off, not within months of appointing him.
Gatland, on holiday in his native Hamilton, would be loathe to pay such a heavy penalty but money talks and the RFU have a lot.
PETER JACKSON