The state of England rugby union – Woodward has a ten point plan
I must begin today by declaring an interest that, despite his illustrious rugby union playing career as a centre threequarters (21 caps for England) and, of course, his subsequent stint as England head coach which culminated in the historic 2003 England Rugby World Cup victory in Australia, I am not a particular fan of the opinionated Sir Clive Woodward.
For me, as the England head coach – for which he remains perhaps best known – he was one of those lucky enough to be “in the right place at the right time”.
When he took over the role, he arrived accompanied by a ton of media publicity and talked expansively about how he was going to revolutionise the England set-up and playing style with the goal of winning the Rugby World Cup.
It didn’t happen. The initial results of his enterprise were occasionally entertaining but relatively indifferent where it matters most, i.e. on the results board of wins, draws and losses.
Nevertheless, gradually – and here I wouldn’t deny that Woodward may had a significant part in it in his selections of the right/best players of the time – a group of outstanding (potentially world class?) English players was assembled and grew into a Rugby World Cup-winning dynamic force.
Where I depart from the perception – at times it seems including his own – that Woodward was an exceptional and innovative international coach is in what happened during the period 2000 to 2003.
In my view they key factor in England’s winning of the 2003 Rugby World Cup was in the inherent quality of the England squad and the happenchance coning together of a significant number of large-charactered players who developed a inner “communal strength”.
To be blunt about it, this group developed ways of “finding whatever it took” to overcome the big Southern Hemisphere nations – as when, for example, on 14th June 2003 – just before the 2003 RWC – England beat the All Blacks at Wellington 13-15 with only six players left in the scrum after Neil Back and Lawrence Dallaglio had been sin-binned.
Plus, in the 2003 RWC Final, of course, when Woodward rushed onto the pitch to join the England huddle when the game went to extra time, to be met by captain Martin Johnson effectively putting up his hand to wave him away with a “We’ve got this, Clive …” gesture. It spoke volumes.
And finally, let’s not forget Woodward’s heavily over-manned, over-blown and chaotic period as head coach of the disastrous 2005 British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand.
But today – and for present purposes, I park all that to one side.
Woodward has written a piece for the sports section of the Daily Mail in which he offers his personal “TEN POINT PLAN TO FIX ENGLAND RUGBY” and in many respects it makes a good deal of sense!
See here – DAILY MAIL
