Stuart Lancaster hopes to complete his England management team when he signs up the former international centre and London Irish coach, Mike Catt, next week. Catt was not at the England pre-season camp which ended on Wednesday, but the England head coach is convinced the proposed long-term deal which he intends to offer will be accepted. "Mike wasn't here but I'm seeing him next week and am hopeful that that will progress soon."
Lancaster has already spoken with those players who worked with Catt during his temporary spell as an assistant coach during the recent three-Test tour of South Africa andLancaster said the deal was "down to the finer points".
"The players enjoyed working with him and he helped them in lots of little ways," he added.
Catt will work alongside the forwards coach Graham Rowntree and Andy Farrell, who is back with England after having second thoughts about extending his contract with Saracens. Farrell has been at Loughborough for the past three days but it was his absence in South Africa which made space on tour for Catt, then coming to the end of his first coaching contract with London Irish.
Farrell, who concentrates on defence, will not work formally with Catt, who looks after attack, until two weeks before the pre-Christmas Tests, when England's seeding for the 2015 World Cup – to be played in England and Wales – will be settled.
Lancaster's side, currently ranked fourth in the world and less than a point ahead of Wales, face Fiji first on 10 November before matches against the three sides ranked above them: Australia, South Africa and New Zealand on successive weekends.
To retain their current ranking and thus reduce the potential of running into one of the big three in the 2015 pool matches, England have to beat Fiji and probably win two of the other matches.
To do that Lancaster will need to field his strongest starting line-up and on Wednesday he admitted there were players who might be struggling to get enough game time before those autumn internationals. Prime among those is the Leicester scrum-half Ben Youngs, who damaged a shoulder in the second Test in South Africa and is unlikely to be ready for the start of the Premiership season, when Tigers travel to London Welsh on 2 September.
Lancaster refused to say when Youngs is likely to be in action, conceding that it would be a "struggle for him to start the season". However, there are suggestions that recent surgery would put Youngs out of action until mid-October.
Something similar might also apply to Alex Corbisiero, the London Irish prop who has also had surgery, on a knee, following the South Africa tour. Some of those who failed to make the tour because of injury – Tom Wood and Courtney Lawes of Northampton, and Tom Croft of Leicester, are all said to be recovering well, as is the captain Chris Robshaw, who broke a thumb on tour.
"They're all in good spirits," added Lancaster. Lawes is recovering from a dislocated elbow but is expected to be fit by October and Wood, whose toe injury has kept him out of international contention so far this year, should be fit for Northampton's Premiership opener against Gloucester.
Lancaster's mood has also brightened since England returned from South Africa with two defeats and one draw in the Test series, and after this summer selecting 64 players for the England elite and Saxons squads – all of whom were at Loughborough at some stage of the three-day camp – he is convinced "the right players are on the bus". He said England's objective is to be ranked "in the top two with two years to go. I think that's a realistic assessment".
Lancaster is also confident the inclusion of Catt will reduce some of the pressure he has felt as head coach, particularly on tour.
Initially Lancaster said he was comfortable with just two assistants, but he agreed that had changed. "I'm of a mindset that I don't want to be too stretched," he said. "I want to make sure I give the players the best support possible to be as good as they can be."
