R4 million agreement on Mitchell

This week should see the Bull’s announcement of coach John Mitchell’s departure for England.

The Bulls and England RFU have reportedly been negotiating the terms of Mitchell’s departure for the past few weeks, according to Netwerk24, and have agreed on a departure fee of R4 million – around £218 000.

Previously it had been reported that the Bulls had rejected the RFU’s offer of R900 000 (£50 000), asking for R9 million (£500 000) instead.

Mitchell is set to replace Paul Gustard (who left for the Harlequins following the June Test series loss  against the Springboks) as England’s defence coach.

After an awful season in charge of the Bulls, seeing just 6 wins out of 16 games, Mitchell’s contract will comes to a premature end as it was previously set to expire at the end of October 2019.

This will be the New Zealander’s second stint with England, after coaching the forwards between 1997-2000 under Sir Clive Woodward.