Right.

Is Tony Smith still the England manager? I thought Noble had to step down as he was also a club manager?

Yes and no.

Noble was released due to his club connections as they wanted a full time coach for the World Cup.

and then they didn't want to look foolish by having the same thing happen to them again and so conveniently changed the rules. If it's only for World Cups you have to have a full time coach then whats the point in employing TS now? Have the same guy working with them now as the same guy taking them to the world cup.

The RFL did want to have a full time coach for England but there are not enough matches at international level to really need one. Tony Smith got bored doing no coaching for long periods so took the job at Warrington. Noble was not willing to give up his club coaching job to be full time so left when his contract ended. Until there are more games per year at international level there is unlikely to be a coach willing to commit full time as they will be mainly twiddling their thumbs except for a few weeks in late October and early November each year.

Noble was "released" due to epic failure over a number of years.

Smith should also have been "released" for the same reason - although to be fair, he has won at least 1 competition during his time in the job.

Noble and very very few other GB/England coaches have had the luxury of playing a 2nd string NZ team in a 3 game series on home soil.

We won that under him and went pretty well but the mistakes he made in squad and team selection for the world cup were shocking.

Massive understatement.

The World Cup was a disgrace, and there is no way that Smith should still be in job. When he wanted to get back into club coaching, the RFL should have been delighted they had the opportunity to get rid of him.

And who would take over?

My personal fave was picking 4 props and 9 backrowers in a squad of 23

It's a route he seems to be going down with Wires squad for next year aswell. They look to have built a good squad but it's top heavy on backrowers and has few props in it. He looks willing to let his backrowers have a go at prop if needs be.