Writing in the Sunday Times, Stephen Jones sends out an SOS to the man who steered England to World Cup glory in 2003.
"More than five years ago Sir Clive Woodward drove out of Twickenham, expecting never to return. He had just given a fiery dressing-down to RFU grandees on live television in the media conference marking his exasperated resignation after a glorious tenure as England coach.
"He is now director of elite performance at the British Olympic Association, apparently far removed from rugby. How strange, then, that his name was on everybody’s lips last week.
"Or is it? The inquest into another ghastly England season, with the frantic straw-clutching of the team hierarchy, raged on. But to me, pure innocent that I am, there were some odd elements to the whole thing. Senior RFU figures admit that the hornets’ nest was stirred last Sunday when Lawrence Dallaglio, writing in The Sunday Times, castigated the lack of vision and effectiveness of Rob Andrew, elite rugby director and in overall charge of the misfiring England side. Dallaglio called for Woodward.
"Conspiracy theorists were then given a fascinating ride. Wednesday was the day of the formal media inquest at Twickenham and Martin Johnson and Andrew duly defended their team, their coaches and themselves. But on the previous day (Tuesday) one paper suggested strongly that senior RFU figures wanted Woodward to replace Andrew."
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