England appoint ANOTHER new assistant for Steve Borthwick

McGuigan, currently defence coach at Sale Sharks, will support the England setup in a combined role, joining the national team during the international windows of the 2025/26 season while continuing his club duties with Sale.

In his England role, McGuigan will work closely with assistant coach Andrew Strawbridge on the collision area, helping to develop players’ contact skills. He will also focus on the back three, sharing his experience as a former international winger to help enhance their skills and tactical understanding.

“Byron is a knowledgeable and driven coach with a real passion for improving players,” said Borthwick.

“He has an excellent understanding of the game, both as an international player and now as a coach. I’m looking forward to the impact he’ll make during the autumn.”

McGuigan made over 100 appearances for Sale Sharks during his playing career and earned 10 caps for Scotland. He was appointed defence coach at Sale in November 2024 and earlier this year was part of England’s successful summer tour of Argentina and the USA.

“It was a huge privilege to be involved during the summer, and I’m excited to be back to contribute to the team,” said McGuigan.

“I’m very grateful to Sale for supporting me in taking on this opportunity alongside my club role. It’s a fantastic chance to continue developing as a coach while contributing to both teams.”

England begin their 2025 Quilter Nations Series campaign on Saturday 1 November, when they host Australia at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham (kick-off 3.10pm), followed by matches against Fiji, New Zealand, and Argentina.

McGuigan received high praise from Alex Sanderson, the current Sale boss.

"He's a coach that's recently removed from playing, so he's able to tap into the emotional cues of the players, to read the players, to be able to inspire intent from the players because it's only been a couple of years since he was there himself. Saying that, there are other coaches, such as Mike Forshaw, who can also do that.

"That gives the players a want to physically put their bodies on the line. That's probably the most important aspect of being a defence coach. Layered onto that is, by his own admission, the fact that he was not the fastest winger, never even the fittest, so his game intelligence in terms of positioning in the wider channels had to be absolutely spot on, and he's excellent around what shape looks like from your 4th,5th,6th,7th defender out and how you close the backfield, that's for me a difference in terms of his rugby IQ.

"A lot of people can get you facing around the middle but his ability to shut off attacks which can play a wide line, Bristol as an example, we've had some of our best performances against them. To make the pitch feel small through intense in the middle and real understanding and clarity in those wider channels, that's what he's bringing to the England team I'm sure."

"And he really, really cares. There was this meeting today (Tuesday). I took yesterday in review, tough meeting and his meeting was pretty tough today, but it was all born from care like a place of like love. He was like, "I love you boys and I want you to do this and be great and play for England. And this is why I'm showing you these things and I need your feedback on whether you think that's acceptable or not." It was that kind of meeting and it's difficult to do that, unless you've got the players there and they know what you're saying is authentic. So yeah. Rapport. The ability to inspire to a good communicator and very high game IQ in terms of how you defend the wide channels and the backfield because of his playing experience as well at international level, those three things."