Woodward certainly bollocksed it up. And for all the credit he's been happy to claim for the WC2003 win, his overall tenure with England isn't that flash and, more importantly, I would suggest that England's golden years of 2002-2003 were more a reflection of the superb leadership of Martin Johnson, arguably England's finest captain, and one of their best ever forwards. England failed miserably under Woodward, without Johnson, in their 2004 tour of New Zealand - indeed, Woodward, that scourge of foul play spent a week publicly encourageing his players to "sort out" one All Black lock, and then, when Simon Shaw kicked a prone Robinson in the spine, demanded an end to red cards for on-field thuggery - and that team, and Woodward, spent more time focused on calls of All Black cheating, refereeing, and so on, than they seemed to on playing (spot a pattern?). At a press conference after the second lost test, Woodward and Dallaligo made it clear they viewed the Lions tour next year as a chance to prove a point, which should have set off alarm bells. Why would a Lions tour offer the English team a chance to prove a point? Isn't it a four nations team? We saw why in the first test - because that wan't a Lions team, it was a team of Clive's mates from England, many of whom were woefully inadequate for the task. More details of arrogance and stupidity keep leaking out - Wooward claimed the All Blacks won lineouts against the throw in the first Lions test because they were cheating and the referees were incompetant, but then it came out that Woodward, paranoid that the All Blacks had worked out their lineout calls, had changed them the morning of the test. Cheating All Blacks and ref, eh? Not players confused by an idiotic decision at the top, oh, no. Woodward comes across as a weasel of the first water: he did his best to shit on Henry when Henry got the 2001 Lions, and has never shut up about how Henry was the worst Lions coach ever, a disaster for the Lions concept, a disgrace to the team. Now he claims the results of his own tour - a great deal less impressive than the narrow 2-1 loss in 2001 - is irrelevant and only the World Cup really matters. He claimed before he had the best and most professionally prepared Lions team ever, and that he should be judged on the results of the test. But now, apparently, it's all OK because the players had fun. And Pete, Woodward reckons these All Blacks are nothing special. So that can't be why the Lions got caned. It's a real shame, too. The Lions supporters who came to New Zealand were, from my contact with them, a fantastic bunch. One English bloke spoke passionately to me about how great it was to come somewhere where rugby is everywhere and it's the main sport, as though it were a pilgrimage of sorts for him. These fans spent a fortune to come to the other side of the world to support the Lions, and were let down badly - as were the New Zealand fans, because we were looking forward to a real, old-fashioned tour with some tough, exciting rugby, and we got a damp squib. Only the mid-week side actually seemed to really care about getting out and about, winning games, and enjoying themselves. Those players, and the evergreen Geech, deserve credit for playing like Lions.
In politics and business, there are doubtless message-benders who have stayed ahead of the game: planted stories, influenced headlines, tricked the audience in ways we are hardly aware of. But on a rugby tour? Be serious. Campbell picked the worst of all sports to parachute into, because rugby folk have the best bull**** detectors going. It remains the most plain-speaking of all our games. If Campbell was mistrusted by the rugby writers, it was because he had no business standing between the players and the 22,000 supporters who followed them on their trail of tears.
rodgerd - only by calling on my deepest reserves of restraint did I manange not to stand up in my cubicle and applaud your post. There is a thin line between greatness and idiocy - and the difference between walking on one side of it or the other is luck (and, in this case, Martin Johnson) - I'm glad to see that "Sir" Clive is finally being exposed for the idiot he has always been. I don't generally like to kick a man when he's down, but in this case I'll gladly make an exception. I'm angry for the talented Welsh and Irish players who didn't get a look in or got played out of position to accommodate a selection error - but I'm far more angry for the thousands of fans who spent millions of pounds to travel literally to the other side of the world to see that shit. I concur that that All Black team were incredible, and I suspect that even the best team the Lions could have put forward wouldn't have beaten them, but we could at least have had 3 blinding games with a great team being pushed to produce even more stunning rugby than it did.
There's more insight into rugby and the Lions in these few entries than in the whole of the Lions management! There's an interesting article in today's Guardian which sticks the boot into Woodward and Campbell again - I thought you might enjoy it!
