Eddie Jones picks Bath boss Neil Hatley as his scrum coach for Rugby World Cup Dan Palmer

Slowly but surely, Eddie Jones is putting the pieces of the puzzle together. the most recent The Roar: can reveal, he is reuniting with his former England manager, Neil Hatley, who worked with Jones in the run-up to the 2019 World Cup.

Weeks after former NRL star Brett Hodgson became Jones’ defense coach, The Roar: It is understood Hatley will link up with the Wallabies in May after the Premier League season.

Hatley is also expected to work closely with Brumbies development forwards coach Dan Palmer, who is also likely to join the Wallabies for the rest of the year.

But who coaches the formation and attack remains to be seen.

Hatley worked closely with Jones during the previous World Cup before joining Bath, where he is currently the English club’s forwards coach, but was also previously their head coach.

The 53-year-old was well-respected by the England playing group and helped develop the likes of Jamie George, Kyle Sinclair and Ellis Genge.

It is known that he has an insatiable appetite for work. Indeed, his former boss at Bath, Mike Ford, said before he joined England in 2016 that he would have to coax him out of the job on a nightly basis.

“I have to tell him to go home sometimes because he’s a real crook, but the players all love him,” Ford said.

“He can communicate with them and at the same time say that they are not chosen. I’ve never seen the kind of detail he puts into scrums, but he’s also worked in our contact zone and defence. He’s an advantage enough to lose.”

Regarding working with Jones and coaching at international level, Hatley said at the start of his tenure he was “under no illusions how difficult it was going to be”.

“If coaching at that level was easy, everyone would be doing it,” he said. “I expect to be pushed and pushed as hard as I can to get the best out of the players.”

While England’s scrumhalf had a good run in the World Cup final defeat to the Springboks, it was largely Jones who struck out.

The early loss of Sinclair in the opening minutes against the Springboks in Yokohama also looked a destabilizing loss for England.

However, Hatley will be excited about the support stock he has to work with.

While Taniela Tupou and Angus Bell have nagging injuries, the scrum performed well without being dominant last year.

Hatley’s technical prowess, along with Palmer’s, could prove necessary to make it a force.

Palmer was recently described by Allan Alaalatoa and Stephen Larkham as “one of the best in the world” and the former Wallaby spent time with Jones in Suntory late last year.

The former forward also spent time with the Wallabies during last year’s Rugby Championship and his technical flair was highly regarded by the team.

Jones, meanwhile, is believed to be looking for a linebacker.

While former England lock Geoff Parling is gunning for the Rebels, the former Lions linebacker is not thought to be in Jones’ list.

The problem is that there are very few specialists in Australian rugby, which can partly explain the nation’s struggle to kick consistently over the years.

Ben Mowen and Stephen Hoyles are considered good managers, but some believe Dave Dennis, who played alongside Parling at Exeter and excels at set-up and gambling, would be a good fit.

While Dennis would be inexperienced from a coaching standpoint, Jones has shown he has no problem bringing in people from left field.

Mowen, meanwhile, will join the Brumbies next year.

RUPA president Justin Harrison is another left-field option. Australia’s head umpires coach and former respected second rower Mitch Chapman is also another option outside the box.

As for the offense, it’s understood that Jones has yet to find an available candidate who fits the bill and can lead the offensive line, just as Dave Rennie envisioned this year, unless a better option comes along.

The Wallabies coach told his own podcast Eddie last month that he wanted to get his coaching staff together by May 1.