Smith to stay in New Zealand

Rugby World Cup winning assistant coach Wayne Smith will stay in New Zealand.

The RFU has announced Smith has chosen to stay in New Zealand for personal reasons, namely to be close to his parents and family, who live in Putaruru.

He's rejected an offer to work as Stuart Lancaster's defence coach with England through to the next World Cup.

Smith will instead honour the second year of his Chiefs contract.

Lancaster says he's disappointed, but can understand Smith's decision.

"His parents are quite elderly and he wants to be close to them, his two sons go to university there and I think when they discussed it at the weekend, as much as they can see the pros of doing it, he felt the right thing to do was to stay there."

Wayne Smith says it was an incredibly difficult decision but he wanted to fulfil his commitment to be close to his parents.

He says it didn't feel right leaving the Chiefs with more than a year left on his contract.

"Part of this decision was on running the Chiefs. I'm hugely committed to this team, love the players and the setup and the coaching team, and I think we've got the chance to create something special."

Smith says long term it might be an option to coach the Blues.

Rugby editor Nigel Yalden says it's a significant boost not only for the Chiefs, but the New Zealand Rugby Union as well, given the immeasurable amount of intellectual knowledge Smith would have taken with him.

Former England international Mike Catt, best known for being run over by Jonah Lomu in the 1995 Rugby World Cup semifinal, has been appointed as the attack coach for England's five match tour to South Africa next month.

Photo: Wayne Smith (Photosport)