England cricket's managing director Hugh Morris has distanced himself from the vacant RFU post © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: John Steele

Teams: England

Hugh Morris, managing director of England cricket, has distanced himself from the vacant performance director role at the Rugby Football Union (RFU), insisting that press reports he has applied for the job are untrue.

With Clive Woodward's high-profile snub still ringing in the ears of the RFU's top brass, the 47-year-old Morris has added a further note of farce to proceedings with a flat denial of recent speculation.

His desire to remain with the England Cricket Board (ECB) appears to leave Stuart Lancaster, current Saxons coach and RFU head of player development, as the sole runner in the race for a position trumpeted as the most important of three created in John Steele's wide-ranging review of the union.

"I haven't applied for the job at the RFU, I haven't spoken to anybody at the RFU about the job so I am scratching my head a bit as to why my name has been in the paper all the time," Morris told the BBC's Test Match Special

"I am very fortunate to love the job I am doing. I really enjoy working with [England cricket coach] Andy Flower in particular and have got a lot of very talented people within the development and I have serious ambitions for England cricket and we are looking to drive things forward to try to become the number one side in the world."

Lancaster, who is currently preparing an England XV for their meeting with the Barbarians at Twickenham on Sunday, remains in the frame for the role and has confirmed his interest.

"My role is to coach the Saxons team, run all the regional academies and run all the national age-group teams," he said. "If you look at the job spec, it is not overly dissimilar apart from one or two quite significant parts. Clearly it is a role that I am currently doing and have been doing for the last three years so it is a role that I would be interested in if the opportunity came up."