Geoff Cooke has attacked the new England coach, Clive Woodward, whose long anticipated appointment along with Roger Uttley as manager was confirmed by the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham yesterday. The former England manager, who guided his side to two grand slams and the 1991 World Cup final, criticised Woodward's competitive track record as a coach and his alleged shortcomings in temperament.
Cooke, in an interview with Rugby News magazine, criticised the RFU's decision to choose a celebrated former international player - Woodward won 21 caps - instead of an experienced professional coach as successor to Jack Rowell who resigned last month. He cited the recent example of Carel Du Plessis, like Woodward a stylish three-quarter, who was sacked from his job as Springboks coach after losing a Lions Test series and failing in the tri-nations competition in his first six months in the post.
"It worries me when I see Clive's record and volatility" said Cooke, who is now chief executive at Bedford. "He is up and down and I have question marks about him. I read recently someone saying how valuable it was that Clive had performed on the international field and therefore understood the game. My view is, so what? That was in 1980 and what relevance has that to today's game?
"The fact that he was a exciting centre doesn't mean he can motivate a tough grizzled old prop forward. And the laws have changed about 10 times since Clive played."
Woodward, who will meet 77 players at today's England squad session at Bisham Abbey said: "The chance of coaching England was one I just couldn't turn down. There was common agreement that the role had to be full time and I'm very keen to bring my own ideas into the England set-up at senior level.
"The support I have had from Bath during the discussions has been superb. I've had some very good times at the Recreation Ground and I wish them every success."
However, Cooke took the RFU's National Playing Committee - which includes Fran Cotton and Bill Beaumont - to task for what he suggested was a lack of up-to-date knowledge about coaching at Test level. "It's tempting for people on committees to pick an old star and go for him," he said. "But when you look at most committees and the people on them you have to ask what they know about coaching - and in most cases it's a joke.
"Those who were good players may understand the game but it does not necessarily make them good coaches. The trouble is the most outstanding performers are by nature selfish. They have an arrogance you need to reach the top but those are not necessarily the qualifications for a good coach.
"Some people can't coach for toffee no matter how well they know the game because they don't possess that little thing that makes great coaches."
Cooke was highly dismissive of the RFU's earlier approaches to Ian McGeechan (a Scot), Graham Henry (a New Zealander) and Bob Dwyer (an Australian) on the grounds of what he regarded as unsuitable nationality. "I respect them enormously but the idea of them or anyone else who isn't English being appointed to coach England is something I am firmly against."
Guardian Service
