Despite the fact that former All Blacks assistant coach Wayne Smith has signalled his intention to return to England in the future the Chiefs remain confident that their new backline coach will see out his two-year contract with them.

Smith is just one of the high profile coaches that has been linked with a role in the new England coaching structure, with British media tipping him to join South African Nick Mallett at the helm of the national team.

The pair have taken charge of a Southern Hemisphere XV for a charity match at Twickenham this weekend and evidently certain elements of the media view them as a dream combination to set England straight after their poor performance at the World Cup under former captain Martin Johnson.

The World Cup-winning coach penned his deal with the Chiefs before the global showpiece kicked off earlier this year and was seen as instrumental in luring big-name players such as Sonny Bill Williams to the Super Rugby franchise.

The former Northampton boss explained to the media that he did not want to rush into another international coaching job too soon after leaving the All Blacks, but also revealed that he has an "out clause" in his contract with the Chiefs, so his options are essentially wide open.

He said: "I've got a two-year contract but there's an out-clause for both of us. I didn't want to walk out of the All Blacks with the game plan under my arm and go to a competing nation immediately.

"Given a bit of time to get that out of my system, I'd be really interested in coming back to the UK. Coming back is always something I've wanted to do," Smith revealed.

Mallett has rejected the idea of taking over the England job straight away as he would like to take a six month break from the game in order to spend some time with his family, but current speculation is that the pair could be lured north after the Six Nations next year.

Saxons coach and RFU head of elite player development Stuart Lancaster is expected to take over in a caretaker role for the European tournament with scrum coach Graham Rowntree as his assistant which could buy enough time to entice Mallett and Smith to team up at Twickenham.

Mallett dropped a hint that he and Smith might be interested in coaching at the highest level again when he told told the media: "Wayne and I both believe in our abilities as coaches and believe we can get the best out of the teams we coach.

"Without saying anything detrimental [about the previous England regime], there's a lot of progress that can be made," he added.

However, despite all of this Chiefs' chief executive Gary Dawson remains confident that Smith will see out the full term of his contract with the New Zealand franchise.

He told the New Zealand Herald: "Wayne is committed to us for two years. I would be surprised if he left to coach another team in that time.''