Smith was in South Africa in his role as assistant coach with the Waikato Chiefs when he met Lancaster, who was looking to finalise his staff for the summer tour to the same country and through to the 2015 World Cup.

Lancaster has already confirmed he will look to stick with the same ‘three wise men’ set up that served England so well during the RBS 6 Nations, with a replacement needed for backs coach Andy Farrell who has opted to pursue his coaching career with Saracens.

Smith claims to have discussed more than one possible role – including head coach – and admits he needs to make a decision quickly.

“I've got some major considerations to make over the next 10 days,” Smith said.

“I love being a head coach. The only question I had over the England job that was advertised, the actual job description of the role, was that it was more in line with strategically running the team.

“It didn't appear to be a 'track-suited' role. I couldn't imagine a foreigner coming in and running the All Blacks. I'm of the belief that it's right that an Englishman does that for the English team. I'm pretty used to being the head man. I'm always comfortable in that role.

“He's [Lancaster]very humble and he knows what needs to be done over there because it's not just about coaching the players as we've found out here with the All Blacks.

“It's aligning all your provincial coaches and club coaches because they're the people coaching your players. Getting them on-side and getting the buy-in to the national team being strong and vibrant and challenging the best in the world is pretty important.

“That will be his major role. He wants some on-field coaches, he will be in charge of strategy and alignment, and the campaign overall.”