Next England coach: Ian Ritchie faces hard questions with Michael Cheika the latest to reject job

Rugby Football Union chief executive will try to talk himself out of an uncomfortably tight corner

Michael Cheika, left, is taking charge of the Barbarians squad for their upcoming matches (Getty)

Ian Ritchie, the Rugby Football Union chief executive who talked himself into an uncomfortably tight corner last week by stating that any serious candidates for the vacant England coaching job would need “proven international experience”, will attempt to talk himself back out of it on Tuesday at what is certain to be a frosty meeting of the governing body’s board.

Ritchie is due to present the findings of a review into the national team’s embarrassingly brief stay at their own World Cup, but will also be expected to explain exactly where he stands in the search for a big-name replacement for Stuart Lancaster, who was effectively given his cards and shown the door six days ago.

With big-name foreign coaches falling over each other in the rush to put distance between themselves and Twickenham – the Wallaby boss Michael Cheika was the latest to declare his non-interest, following the likes of his fellow Australian Eddie Jones and an array of New Zealanders, including Steve Hansen, Wayne Smith and Graham Henry – the CEO is in dire need of a positive angle on what is fast turning into the most negative of sagas.

Cheika, whose high-energy management style brought the best out of the Wallabies at the global tournament, could not have been clearer in his rejection of any possible career move. “No one from England has contacted me and they know they can’t contact me because I’m committed to Australia,” he said. “I’m an Australian coaching Australia – it’s like a dream. There’s nothing that would make me change my mind. I want to do the best I can in this role for as long as I can.”

The RFU declined to comment on reports that Jake White, the South African coach who guided the Springboks to the Webb Ellis Cup eight years ago, had already been in talks at Twickenham.

White is certainly interested in succeeding Lancaster, but he has no intention of taking part in a beauty contest. Either he is offered the job quickly, or he stays in French club rugby with Montpellier.

Meanwhile, the men running the European Champions Cup spent the day trying to reschedule a fistful of games postponed following the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night.

Simon Halliday, the tournament chairman, described it as a “unique problem” because of a fixture list so congested it would make a sardine feel claustrophobic, and he was not helped by headline-grabbing interventions from the respective owners of Toulon and Bath, Mourad Boudjellal and Bruce Craig.

Boudjellal suggested that the match between the two clubs should be staged during the Six Nations, with a full complement of international players – a move that would throw the sport headlong into a political crisis.

Craig, meanwhile, predicted that the game would never be played at all – a move that would leave the competition in a similar state.

Most sensible observers expect it to go ahead in the first week of December, with the Bath-Northampton Premiership match being rearranged for later in the season.