Rugby-Premiership coaches can't ignore England turmoil

By Mitch Phillips LONDON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - There were carefully chosen words on Thursday as the coaches of the 12 Premiership clubs launched the new season -- while being grilled about England's World Cup failure and the possibility of succeeding Stuart Lancaster as national team coach. Mike Ford of Bath, an assistant to Martin Johnson in the 2011 campaign, has already ruled himself out and Exeter's Rob Baxter, one of the bookmaker's favourites, followed him -- for now. "I'm not in the running," he told reporters. "I've just agreed a new three-year contract (at Exeter), shaken hands and the way I do business is that I will honour that contract. "Whether I'm in contention or not I will honour my contract. "That said I am a proud Englishman, I have said I wanted to coach England before and who knows what will happen in the future?" Northampton's Jim Mallinder was a tad more circumspect at the Stoop. "The job is not available at the moment but yes, down the line I would like to coach internationally," said Mallinder, who coached the England Under-21s and second-string Saxons before taking over at Northampton eight years ago. "At the moment Northampton is my priority and we have a massive job ahead this season." Irishman Conor O'Shea, director of Harlequins, was more interested in offering support for Quins flanker and England captain Chris Robshaw. "We took the captaincy off him at Quins to help him deal with the pressures and now it's clear what those pressures are," he said. "I wanted him as mentally fresh as he could be, I wanted him relaxed for what we knew would be the toughest period of his life. "They (England) came up short -- but better to be that man than the man hurling abuse at the pitch. "I talked to him yesterday and told him he'd apologised enough and to be proud of what he's done. "He's an incredible leader and an incredible rugby player'. "He has always been damned with faint praise, he deserves a lot more than that for what he has achieved and will achieve." (Editing by Ed Osmond)