Clive Woodward has a lot to chew over this week. For a coach whose side has won 12 of its last 13 matches, the best record of any country in the world, the England manager has come under fire from a host of former internationals with allegations of a cabal being formed to oust him from his job.
There is no danger of England losing to Romania (k.o. 2.30 p.m.) at Twickenham this afternoon, with Woodward admitting his main concern was that his side did not concede a try. But despite his relaxed bonhomie yesterday, when he read out a letter from a supporter offering his congratulations for last week's victory over Australia but excoriating the manager for chewing gum with his mouth open, there was a tension where there should have been calm.
Woodward said he had spoken to the Newcastle director of rugby, Rob Andrew, who last week said that England had not achieved anything in the last four years.
"I can take criticism from the media and former internationals who are not involved in the game," said Woodward, "but when someone you are in partnership with has a go, it is unacceptable.
"Premiership directors of rugby should be working with me, and I am not prepared to be in partnership with any of them who uses his newspaper column to criticise England. Rob and I have had a long discussion and it is time to move on. The matter is being considered by the board of England Rugby and I hope they do not conclude that it was acceptable conduct: if they did, I would probably have to consider my behaviour." Andrew said he did not expect any action to be taken against him.
"I did not criticise Clive personally, I merely made some factual observations. I hope we are not going down the road of suppressing freedom of speech because that would bring up issues such as restraint of trade. I do not know what partnership Clive is talking about because the directors of rugby have met him only once in four years."
Romania would be only too happy to grapple with the problem of success. Their union has to make do on an annual budget of £105,000 sterling and they know they face an Australian-style cricket score today.
"There will be no complacency," said Woodward. "We are treating the match as if we were playing Australia or South Africa, and with Neil Back in charge there will be no slacking. My view is that the richer unions should be doing more for developing nations like Romania. Playing them every now and then does not achieve anything: we should each be taking a couple under our wings and helping them all year, not just financially but sending our coaches and medical experts to them and playing them at development level."
Only four of the Romanian side earn their livings from rugby. "We play for the shirt," said the captain Alin Petrache. "We know we have no chance of winning, but for our players appearing at Twickenham is the chance of a lifetime."
