Northern or southern hemisphere? Stuart Barnes, Dean Ryan and Ali Williams have offered their thoughts as England prepare to appoint Stuart Lancaster's successor.
Having been coached by Englishmen since its inception, the national team now stands on the verge of history, with many of the top candidates coming from abroad.
In a Sky Sports rugby special aired in line with this potentially defining moment for English rugby, Barnes, Ryan and Williams ran the rule over the bookmakers' favourites for the job.
Southern hemisphere
Contenders: Jake White, Eddie Jones, Michael Cheika, Warren Gatland, Wayne Smith, Jamie Joseph, Dave Rennie, Nick Mallett.
Former England and Bath fly-half Barnes believes the time has come for the RFU to buck the trend and appoint a southern hemisphere coach capable of utilising the wealth of English talent.
BARNES: "It's not a knee-jerk reaction to say we should go to the southern hemisphere because they do have a clear superiority over us.
"Super Rugby is geared towards international rugby, therefore coaches who come through that route have themselves a better path to become a top-quality coach.
"England need to do something, they have some good players and they really do need one of the best coaches in the world, not a guy with so little experience.
"The coach has to be from the southern hemisphere, has to."
Northern hemisphere
Contenders: Jim Mallinder, Mike Ford, Rob Baxter, Conor O'Shea, Dean Ryan.
Having ruled himself out of the running to replace Lancaster, Worcester director of rugby Dean Ryan believes the solution could yet come from a pool of northern hemisphere coaches.
RYAN: "I'm not interested at all. I am not back on the rugby rollercoaster and I have no interest to be. That distinguishes me from a lot of the other people that have been spoken about.
"We seem to have a habit of throwing all the talent we've got over the side and moving on to the next and we can't afford to just discard.
"There is decent intellect in the northern hemisphere game. We don't necessarily have the best domestic game to develop talent because we're in a survival environment by the nature of what our game is.
"We're in survival and it is difficult to marry the intellect we have with the necessary development of players."
Outsiders
New Zealand's World Cup winning second-row Ali Williams believes the ability of coaches in the southern hemisphere to nurture talent and manage characters would provide skills English coaches would be unable to match.
WILLIAMS: "You need a man that has the confidence to give power to the players. At the moment I feel sometime the power is taken away from the players because you don't want the character to come out. You need a coach that is confident to step back and release the talent.
Asked whether Highlanders and Chiefs coaches Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie would be suited to the position, he replied: "They would be great.
"The key with these coaches is that they install confidence in the players. Rennie is an amazing coach and I've played under Joseph once, a great coach as well.
"These guys have the ability to grab and harness talent that maybe a traditional English coach might not see, and they'll create a rose out of them."