Northampton director of rugby Jim Mallinder revealed he is set to meet England boss Eddie Jones next week after watching his side beat Exeter.

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Mallinder accused the RFU of making an unofficial approach for his assistant coach Alex King and insisted after the 8-3 win over the Chiefs that he still knew no more about Jones’ intentions after the Australian met with King.

Jones, who has been in Australia for Christmas, has identified King as his potential attack coach after adding scrum coach Ian Peel to his backroom staff following the appointments of Steve Borthwick and Paul Gustard.

Mallinder said the club had still not had any contact from the RFU and added: “Eddie is coming back next week and coming into the club to see me for a chat, so hopefully I will know a bit more then.”

Jones is believed to be keen on naming Dylan Hartley as England captain, but Mallinder admitted the 29-year-old has a fight on his hands to win a starting place at Northampton after picking Mike Haywood ahead of him and then seeing the academy product score the only try of the game in an impressive performance.

Mallinder said: “Mike Haywood was a big call, to start him above Dylan – but again he showed what he can do. “Mikey, over the last few years, has played well for us. When we won the Premiership Mikey was a massive part of that and started when we won the final.”