After retiring at 28 and living in Australia for three years, the forgotten man of England's World Cup-winning team has realised there is no place like home. The Independent on Sunday's Hugh Godwin talks to Trevor Woodman.
"Until joining Wasps in the summer, he had spent three years living in Australia, involuntarily tagged as the forgotten man of England's 2003 World Cup- winning team.
"Others were icons: Martin Johnson jacked in playing just when he fancied it and became the national manager; Matt Dawson swapped Twickenham for starring roles on television; Jonny Wilkinson carried on playing when his body allowed, and so on. Woodman was the first of the Sydney heroes to have the decision to retire taken out of his hands, by a persistent back injury a year after the final. Flummoxed and initially depressed by the abrupt end to a flourishing career, at the ridiculously young age for a loosehead prop of 28, Woodman eventually travelled Down Under and got into coaching, ironically enough, at Sydney University."
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