If Woodward gets the job how divisive will it be for the english chances at the world cup.

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He was Johnsons coach in 2003 was he not so I guess they get on well. Similar very conservative mindset. He will make sure they are well prepared tho. Expect nothing adventurous in gameplan or selection.

He will forever be associated with a ruining a lions tour with his selection of the over the hill england team on mass.

After burning all his bridges with his infamous rant, he can only be good for England who have not exactly set the world on fire since 2003. I don’t think he is conservative or unadventurous – look at all the inovation he brought to the rugby world during his stint in charge, which eventually worked. I presume he will be MJ’s boss, but will be surprised if he is closely involved in team selection or tactics.

His selection was always conservative. Training methods were good and only innovative in the rugby world – just taken from elsewhere.

Just look at his selection for the lions. A disgrace

Apart from the lions, not sure how his selection was conservative – would you pick anyone else when you have 8 world class forwards, and 5 world class backs at any one time.

He will forever be associated with a ruining a lions tour with his selection of the over the hill england team on mass.

Unless you’re English, in which case he will forever be associated with a world cup winning England team.

😆

Fair enough

His time has passed. He was the right man for that transitional period were rugby union became a serious sport – when there were still a lot of relics from the amateur game knocking about who needed to be told what an athlete looks like.
A rugby CEO-type like Woodward is nothing new nowadays, so he’ll probably just stand around being a general guru / mentor, but not offer anything really substantial.

agree he just seemed to get professionalism and was blessed in that he had a juggernaut pack and a kicker who couldnt miss. Dont think there is a lot of love lost between Johnson and him.

The danger is that people get sucked in by Clive’s success in the 2003 World Cup when, in truth, England would have won if a trained chimp had been in charge.

Jeff Probyn

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/apr/25/jeff-probyn-clive-woodward-martin-johnson-rfu

Probyn sounds like a tit in that piece to be fair, clearly an axe to grind. Winning world cups is never easy or predictable, no matter how strong you are – ask NZ.
England hardly steamrollered everyone in their path in 2003 anyhow did they? They won the final by an arse hair IIRC.

England were not at their best in the Finals, but to be fair entered the tournament ranked Number 1 in the world, beating allcomers home and away including south africa, new zealand and Aus.

Probyn misses the point. Woodward was not the best coach, but moved heaven and earth to ensure players had the right environment to allow them to develop into elite players and secondly to become successful. This task appears easy with hindsight.