{"id":34962,"date":"2026-05-20T16:55:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=34962"},"modified":"2026-05-20T16:55:39","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T14:55:39","slug":"byron-mcguigan-joins-england-coaching-staff-ahead-of-nations-championship","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/byron-mcguigan-joins-england-coaching-staff-ahead-of-nations-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Byron McGuigan joins England coaching staff ahead of Nations Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Byron McGuigan has been appointed to Steve Borthwick\u2019s England coaching staff on a full-time basis ahead of the inaugural Nations Championship.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Namibia-born, South Africa (SA)-raised former Scotland centre first linked up with England during last year&#8217;s tour to Argentina and the United States while serving as defence coach at Sale Sharks.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>From next month, McGuigan will take on permanent responsibilities, including collision skills, aerial contests, and assisting the back three.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Borthwick says McGuigan has made a strong impact since joining last summer, praising his detailed understanding of the game and the energy he brings.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>England open their Nations Championship campaign against the SA national rugby union team at Ellis Park Stadium on July 4, before facing Fiji and Argentina.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8211;SABC\/ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13859,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-34962","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"England open their Nations Championship campaign against the SA national rugby union team.","published_date":"","news_description":"England open their Nations Championship campaign against the SA national rugby union team.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34963,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34962\/revisions\/34963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}