Mike Catt has been appointed as England's new attacking skills coach, the Rugby Football Union have confirmed.
Catt, capped 75 times by England, will work alongside Andy Farrell and Graham Rowntree on Stuart Lancaster's senior management team.
The 40-year-old will also be responsible for developing the skills of younger players in the England Saxons set-up. Catt landed the England role after impressing Lancaster with his contribution, in a temporary capacity, on the summer tour of South Africa.
"Mike made a big impression in South Africa, both on the players and the management," Lancaster said.
"When we got back I asked him to outline his vision for developing not only the skills of the senior team, especially in attack, but with our younger players in the Saxons. Having played at the highest level for many years and developed his coaching during his time at London Irish he has a clear plan for developing these skills."
Catt left London Irish at the end of last season and linked up with England after Farrell, who had been seconded to the national team in the Six Nations, decided to stay with Saracens. But even when Farrell performed a U-turn and took up his post with England, Lancaster wanted to bring Catt on board.
The only delay was down to RFU contract negotiations with London Irish because Catt had left the club with two years remaining on his contract.
"I'd like to thank London Irish for reaching a compromise with us and allowing Mike to start immediately," Lancaster said.
"We have always been an integrated coaching team covering all areas of the game and Mike will be a great addition alongside Graham and Andy.
"We have a massive challenge ahead of us with the QBE internationals in November but beyond that we need to ensure we have the highest standards across all our representative teams and programmes and Mike will help deliver those."
