By Phil Harlow

Ford is already an experienced international defence coach

England's new specialist defence coach Mike Ford will be one of the key figures as England look to resurrect their hopes of defending the World Cup next year.

The former Great Britain rugby league international has already worked as a defence coach with Ireland and the Lions, and has also been head coach at Saracens.

Ford spoke to BBC Sport about his plans.

"The best style is a mixture of blitz and drift defence.

"If we want to do well in the Six Nations and the World Cup next year then you can't have the opposition looking at your defence and being able to say 'England do this every time'.

"There's some smart coaches and they'll come up with plays to break you down, so you've got to keep the opposition guessing."

Ford wants players to think about the type of tackles they are making

"Rugby is moving so fast now that the onus has got to be on the players. They've got to be able to read the game and play what they see, both in attack and in defence.

"What we've got to do is facilitate that - so when the pressure's on and there's 80,000 people watching the players can make the right decisions.

"To a certain extent you don't know what you're going to do yourself until the situation arises.

"But then you should have that ability to make the right tackle - and the right sort of tackle - at the right time."

"I can understand why some people think it is a part-time position. They will ask: what do you do with yourself when you're not coaching England?

"But it's important to monitor the players in the England squad throughout the season.

"You watch the Premiership games and give the players feedback on a regular basis. That gives you a chance to sit down with them and form a relationship which can be hard to do before a Test when it's all hands on deck.

"Some of the debate is to do with coaches losing their sharpness because they are only coaching occasionally rather than day-in, day-out.

"So it's important you keep your hand in with coaching. When England aren't around, you can coach a club side, a university side, a school side - something that means you're going out there and delivering drills and practices."

Ford's early defence training sessions with Ireland were a novelty

"It's quite simple really: rugby union didn't have any defence coaches!

"When I went to coach Ireland in 2002, I don't think they'd had a single defensive session in eight years together.

"It's not a case that there are union defence coaches and the league guys are just better.

"You'll find in the next few years that a lot of union coaches will be taking on the baton."