The Rugby Football Union (RFU) will shake up its coaching development programme after hiring for England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) executive Gordon Lord.

Lord will join the organisation in April 2017 as head of professional coach development, where he will be responsible for implementing a coaching development and education programme “designed to identify and support a succession of world-class coaches”.

More details of the programme will emerge once Lord officially joins.

Lord will report to RFU head of international player development Dean Ryan.

He will “challenge” the performance of professional coaches working with England teams, as well as Premiership and Championship clubs and academies.

After spending 25 years at the ECB – where he was most recently head of elite coach development – Lord said the new role “offers the chance to help advance the coaching culture in English rugby”.

Lord is a non-executive director of England Squash, patron of the Fellowship of Elite Coaches and on the advisory board of Manchester Metropolitan University for the Masters in Sporting Directorship.

Ryan said Lord was “well-regarded throughout sport” for his work developing coaches.

“He has built an outstanding elite coach development programme in cricket and we look forward to welcoming his to the RFU in April,” he added.