Brian McDermott has been appointed England Men's Rugby League head coach for the 2026 World Cup, ending a long RFL interview process and triggering immediate debate across the Super League commentariat.
The former Leeds Rhinos boss — four Super League titles, two Challenge Cups and a World Club Challenge on his CV — said the decision was still sinking in when he sat down with England Rugby League. "It was a long process, applying for the job and going through the interviews," McDermott said. "Now that job's done, I'm really proud, excited. It's only been a couple of days since I was informed, so yeah, I'm immensely proud, and I know there's a lot of work to be done. There's a few things we need to address, but at this stage, I'm pretty excited."
McDermott, currently assistant at the Gold Coast Titans, acknowledged England's chronic international underperformance as the job's defining challenge. "If you know a little bit about English Rugby League, on an international stage we haven't been getting the job done for many, many years," he said. "Every time an international series comes around, there's an expectancy around the team, and every year everybody tries to come up with a plan to get the job done. I believe I've got a plan. I believe my plan will work. Without delving too much into it, any plan has a risk. But that's the bit that excites me — to be successful in the World Cup would mean we would need to be very, very good at everything. It's a tall order, but it's something that I believe we can do."
The new head coach framed his immediate priority as a cultural one. "My personal task is to make people proud when they watch England play," he said. "Every year the players and coaches give it their all, and sometimes we get close, and sometimes we don't. There's a level of expectancy with the English team to go really well every single year, and sometimes that gets overwhelming for players. So before winning, we need to pick up a couple of flags — gaining respect, pride in how we play, making people proud of us, and first and foremost being proud of ourselves."
On The Last Tackle, former England pair Paul Sculthorpe and Adrian Morley — who both played under McDermott at Leeds — endorsed the appointment while flagging the differences between club and international coaching. "It's a great appointment," Sculthorpe said. "He is the most successful Leeds club coach of all time. I played with Brian, played against Brian. I coached with Brian for a year at Leeds. I know what he's all about, and I think for this situation, he's going to be fantastic." Morley added that the short-format nature of Test rugby league suits a motivator. "It's very different than club coaching. It's a short period — you don't get time to coach the players. It's about man-managing the players and inspiring the players to turn out the best performances over a short period."
The reaction has been mixed elsewhere. On The Sin Bin, hosts noted they had expected Brad Arthur or Steve McNamara to land the job. "It wasn't the person I thought it would be," the host conceded. "I thought it would be Brad Arthur. I understand the appeal of Brian McDermott in that he has won a lot of things, and he's got the pedigree. But I thought the fact that he was so long out of head coaching, and more specifically at the top level, would be a big factor against him. I thought the fact that he wouldn't be in the country for the rest of the year would go against him."
Morley pointed to one silver lining of McDermott's Australian base: "He's coaching in the best league, amongst the best players, and it's going to be a bonus with the World Cup being in Australia." Sculthorpe warned England fans to expect squad surprises, noting McDermott's lack of "loyalties" to current Super League players given his time abroad. McDermott's contract is for the World Cup only, though he has already signalled he would like an extension to "influence the next generation" through the pathway system.
