Woodward: RFU are a “laughing stock”

CLIVE WOODWARD has claimed the RFU has reduced England to a “laughing stock” and is doomed to make the same mistakes again as they seek to replace Martin Johnson.

Woodward, the coach of England’s World Cup-winning team in 2003, has launched a withering attack on the game’s administrators and the process used to appoint Johnson.

Woodward said: “Martin Johnson has gone but has anything else changed? I have a serious fear that all the mistakes made at Twickenham, which have reduced England to something of a laughing stock around the world, are about to be made again and four more years will then be wasted. There is nobody who understands elite performance and rugby at the very top. Equally disturbing, the same people are going to appoint the next coach.”