Bossing England like skiing uphill, claims Woodward

CLIVE WOODWARD last night claimed England have gone backwards since their World Cup triumph in Australia barely eight months ago.

The former England head coach, passionate to the end in his farewell Twickenham press conference, meticulously outlined what he feels are clear and damaging reasons for England’s slump.

Lions supremo Woodward will now prepare for a season devoted totally to next summer’s tour of New Zealand.

But the Rugby Football Union - chief executive Francis Baron and management board chairman Graeme Cattermole sat alongside him yesterday - and England’s Zurich Premiership clubs were told in no uncertain terms about a situation that he compared with “skiing uphill.”

Since Martin Johnson lifted the Webb Ellis Trophy last November, England have won just three of their eight Test matches. And that miserable run has now been compounded by Woodward resigning.

Andy Robinson, Woodward’s right-hand man for the past four years, will start work on Monday as acting head coach.

Ahead of him are November appointments with Canada, South Africa and Australia.

Woodward - who believes Robinson should be appointed as his full-time successor - last night warned about the minefield he faces.

“Control of the players is everything and you can’t control them through directors of rugby,” said Woodward, who has fought a seven-year battle with the RFU and top clubs on the thorny player availability issue and sufficient national squad training days.

“It’s like trying to run a business without a workforce. You cannot take any short cuts - I don’t think any of the Olympic gold medallists made any compromises - they were prioritising. These are young men who are not at their best and to be an elite performer you have to control the athlete all the time. The England head coach has to have more control of his players,” he said.

“We sat around the negotiating table with people who, with respect, have no idea about elite performance. When your job and career is involved in winning, you look at what is going on and you can’t accept it. I haven’t accepted it, and it has come to this.”

Woodward added: “It was fantastic to win (the World Cup), but it was clear to me from the moment that plane landed (on its return from Australia) I felt totally out of control.”

He claimed some people would say “there goes Woody, whinging again,” but added: “I cannot compromise. Winning is about inches. Look at Kelly Holmes (double Olympic gold medallist at 800m and 1,500m in Athens), she won by inches.

“We won the World Cup by inches. You cannot compromise. We won the World Cup because we had an outstanding set of players.

But he insisted that England were now in a rebuilding phase, rather than state of decline, and believes they have the players and coaching staff to retain the World Cup in 2007.

“The players are there, and this group has the talent to win the next World Cup,” he said. “But we have to make sure.”