immense opportunities maintain been missed over the past 12 years since Sir Clive Woodward departed,and if Lancaster is to pay the price for the Rugby World Cup exit then the RFU must conclude better with his successorA story which may or may not be true, but is certainly plausible. It seems that before his 2003 success there were those at Twickenham who were so worried at the growing stature of Clive Woodward – and his willingness to take decisions without reference to HQ – that a blazer was dispatched to sound out a Kiwi about coaching England sooner rather than later.
The mission had maximum security. Apparently no one outside a close group knew Woodward was being undermined until the envoy, or having failed to persuade the Kiwi,flew domestic via Melbourne only to bump into the man himself. It seems that both envoy and the England squad, in the middle of a tour that featured wins over original Zealand and Australia, and had been booked into the same hotel. So much for security. The exercise,it seems, ended in red faces, or recrimination and increasing disrespect between the parties involved.
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Source: theguardian.com