Nick Cain column: Good luck to Ian Peel, but don’t forget 2003 guru

Ian Peel has come from the ranks of the RFU's coaching pathway to being named as England's new scrum coach this week. It is a big step up for the former Newcastle Falcons prop, who has been appointed on an interim basis, which includes covering the 2016 Six Nations.
Whether Peel remains in place thereafter will depend not only on how favourable an impression he makes on Eddie Jones, England's new head coach, but also on the availability of Marc Dal Maso, the former France hooker who was Japan's scrum coach under Jones during the recent World Cup.
In order to make the transition Peel has left the Twickenham high performance department after six years as an in-house scrum expert, to become part of the Saracens coaching crew. His rapid elevation to international coaching honours, alongside the accolade of joining the Premiership champions, follows his impressive work with the England U20s.
This included being involved in their two World Junior Championship-winning campaigns in 2013 and 2014, as well as the runners-up slot in Italy in 2015. During those three tournaments Peel enhanced his reputation by producing cohesive, effective England U20 scrummaging units which have provided him with this window of opportunity.
The 39-year-old Yorkshireman has a reputation for being one of the game's strategists, and during his time at Kingston Park he enjoyed mulling-over tactics with Jonny Wilkinson.
However, Peel has not coached in the rough-and-tumble of the Premiership, and that sizeable gap in his CV should give the RFU chief executive, and main coaching recruitment officer, Ian Ritchie, pause for thought. Similarities in his career path with that of Graham Rowntree, whose tenure as England forwards coach has just ended, cannot simply be glossed over.
Rowntree was Peel's predecessor as scrum coach before graduating to take overall control of the senior pack, and like Peel, he had limited Premiership exposure as a coach. Rowntree spent only a season with Leicester before going into the RFU's coaching inner-sanctum and being promoted to the England senior side by his former Tigers team-mate Martin Johnson.
The England scrum during Rowntree's tenure was like the curate's egg. It was good in parts – notably when pounding Australia in the 2014 autumn series – but it also suffered alarming slumps. The comprehensive Wallaby scrum victory in England's decisive World Cup defeat was the most recent low point, while the lack of scrummaging nous evident when England lost the Six Nations Grand Slam in Cardiff in 2013 was another.
Peel has two other distinguishing characteristics. He is one of a train of former Newcastle Falcons players and coaches employed by the RFU during ex-Newcastle rugby director Rob Andrew's tenure at Twickenham, with John Fletcher in charge of the England U18s and Peter Walton coaching the England U20 forwards.
The other is that like Paul Gustard, the new England defence coach who is leaving Saracens as Peel arrives, he did not play at international level. Like many successful coaches before them, their ambition to be influential at the highest level has carried over from the playing arena to the training field.
Another influential factor is that Peel's appointment avoids the club-country conflict that has accompanied the RFU's recent signing of Steve Borthwick as Jones' new lineout coach – after a tug of war with Bristol – and their as yet unresolved courting of the Northampton backs coach, Alex King.
What is intriguing is that if Jones is looking for a world-class scrum doctor there is an Englishman right on his doorstep whose expertise he knows only too well from painful first-hand experience.
The scrum guru in question is Phil Keith-Roach, who, as part of Clive Woodward's coaching cabal, helped to assemble the 2003 world champion pack that gave the Wallabies such a torrid time not just in the final in Sydney, but also in the comprehensive victory in Melbourne on the summer tour that preceded it.
When it comes to the scrum Keith-Roach's passion is as limitless as his knowledge is encyclopaedic. If Jones wants to use the scrum as an attacking base by using hookers who can strike, and reintroducing back-row moves, he would find a kindred spirit in the former Rosslyn Park No.2 and captain.
It would also mean that the brains trust in English rugby was being utilised to the full, as there is no-one more capable than Keith-Roach in helping Peel – and the England pack – to take the next big stride.