Woodward says ‘elite athletes’ are England’s future

CLIVE WOODWARD has claimed if England are to have any hope of retaining the World Cup then they need to develop elite athletes.

He dismissed as “nonsense” a suggestion from Rugby Football Union chairman Martyn Thomas that top players should play a maximum of 28 games a season.

“The whole issue is very simple,” said Woodward, who led England to World Cup success in 2003.

“If England want to become the number one ranked team in the world and win the World Cup you have to start with the player.

“You have to put him at the forefront of all the debate. We have to create superstar elite rugby players, who become the best player in their position.

“New Zealand coach Graham Henry has complete and utter control of the player in everything he does — and I mean everything.

“We have got to get this system in place, it is so obvious to me.

“It is not about how many games we are playing. That is a complete smokescreen for people who are panicking and trying to find a magic solution.

“Martyn is saying 28 games as a maximum for top players. That is nonsense. Some players can play 35 games, others 12.

“You have got to have one person individually managing the player programme and good people working with him. If you don’t do that, everything else comes unstuck.”

England have struggled badly this year and are looking for a new coach following Andy Robinson’s departure.

Thomas said: “The radical plan has to be that the coach gains total control over the players and the playing time.

“Below that comes the issue of the number of games we play internationally, the number of games we play club-wise, the number of competitions we enter.

“It is a crazy system. We want to get the top players down to playing around 28 games a year.”

Woodward dismissed claims by Premier Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty that there was no forward-thinking in place for a strong defence of their world title.

“There was a clear plan but it was not taken up by various people,” Woodward told Radio Five Live’s Sportsweek programme. “We have gone from world champions to where everyone is laughing at us.

“But England can recover quickly. We have the players but someone has to sit down and show real leadership.”

McCafferty added: “We put plans to the RFU in March. Among them was the players to be more involved with the England set up. Those were not taken forward.

“The clubs have done quite a lot over the last 12 months to try to help the situation. We cannot make it a one-way street.”