Eddie Jones will be given permission by the Rugby Football Union to coach the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa despite signing a new two-year contract extension this week to remain in his post as England head coach to 2021.
Jones's original contract, due to expire at the end of the World Cup in Japan next year, did not allow him to be available for last year's Lions tour of New Zealand.
However, the new deal, thought to be worth about £750,000 a year including bonuses, will leave the Australian free to be involved in the Springbok tour if asked by the Lions board, even if it is likely to require some sort of pre-tour sabbatical.
Stephen Brown, the RFU chief executive, refused to disclose whether the contract extension contained a specific Lions clause but insisted it would not prevent Jones from being involved.
"No, it wouldn't prohibit him at all," said Brown. "We're a quarter shareholder in the Lions and we'll have some say in that too. Our view in that would be that if we're planning for success and we have come out of a very successful World Cup, and Eddie is the right coach for the Lions, the arrangement isn't going to preclude that. This is fundamentally about England, but, no, it doesn't preclude a Lions situation."
Jones, who also ruled himself out of involvement with last year's Lions tour because of his desire to concentrate on his day job, would be the strong favourite to succeed Warren Gatland if England enjoyed a successful World Cup.
But he said he was "not arrogant or presumptuous enough to think I would be offered the Lions role".
"It is not really part of my rugby history," he added. "So, I would see that as being consequential of coaching well, so it is not something I really think or worry about."..