Shaun Edwards aims to get involved with Wigan in 2019, but insists interim coach Adrian Lam will be the boss.
Edwards has signed a three-year contract to become head coach of his hometown club, though he will not take up the reins until he completes his commitments with Wales after next year’s rugby World Cup in Japan.
Former Queensland playmaker Lam, another popular former Wigan halfback, will keep Edwards’ seat warm in 2019 as interim head coach but the 51-year-old says he will have some input.
“I will try and be involved,” Edwards said, at his unveiling at the DW Stadium.
“Outside my international commitments last year I did some work with Cardiff Blues in a consultancy role and I’ll do that again with Ospreys.
“I’ll also be driving up to Wigan and watching training but I won’t be doing any coaching, it will be all over to Adrian.
“We’ll speak on the phone regularly but he’s the boss during his period in charge.”
Edwards, who won every trophy in the game during a glittering 15-year playing career with Wigan, has spent the last 17 years in rugby union, initially with Wasps and since 2008 with Wales.
However, the former Great Britain captain has always maintained a keen interest in the 13-man game and insists he will not have a problem making the readjustment.
“There are tactical changes to the game, obviously, but in the end, the game is still the same,” he said.
“There’s big men in the middle, you need two tricky halfbacks and on top of that, you need a tricky hooker who will understand the game and talented athletes on the outside to finish the tries off.
“The game was like that when my heroes played for Wigan in the 1950s and it will be like that in another 40 years too, I think,” he said.
“There are things which could potentially make the game more exciting but there’s no way I’d come back and start preaching about how to make it better.”
Papua New Guinea-born Lam, 47, will have one Super League season in charge as Shaun Wane’s successor, who announced he was joining the Scotland Rugby Union’s coaching staff in June.
Lam started with coaching career with PNG in 2007, three years after ending a first grade career that featured 146 matches for the Sydney Roosters and 119 for Wigan.