RFU : Performance Director

Well. They are shutting the stable door at HQ as the horse has bolted.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/13778069.stm

SCW - the one man in my opinion with the clout and authority to knock heads together in the boardrooms that matter has chosen to take over as chef de mission for the Junior GB Winter Olympics team.

A man who is not to everyone's taste anyway is finally off the list (whether short or long).

But the fact remains that English rugby needs a good shake-up. So where is the man with enough gravitas and respect to fulfil the role?

Geech? All that domestic and Lions experience
Peter Wheeler? Poacher turned game-keeper
Bill Beaumont? But tainted by the RFU debacle

Who?

I can't see that bussing in a foreigner would work.

This whole sage has really turned into a proper nightmare How the RFU has and is mucking things up is incredible and sad for English rugby. The fact that SCW has taken this winter olympics position is a damning verdict on the RFU. After all the winter olympics is not exactly in the same league as the summer games. We don't have any snow or facilities in this country and we will never achieve anything more than the odd unexpected bonus medal. Therefore SCW has chosen a non job than the key role in the most powerful rugby union in the game. Sums it up really.

But if the RFU can attract someone else to do a decent job then maybe something can be salvaged, but to be honest we are all struggling to come up with decent alternatives. And I don't want foreign as that is not right even though Jake White etc could all do a fair job. That leaves.....

Nigel Melville?

To paraphrase Churchill. It's a shambles wrapped in a farce wrapped in a complete eff-up.

Not sure that Melville has the clout to manage what needs to done.

It is a vicious circle:

The person with the Rugby knowledge, financial savvy, and political clout to be independent enough to make significant change would therefore have enough power to threaten the very same people who hired him in the first place. Can anyone see the entrenched interests at the RFU willingly hire someone who could turn their world upside down (potentially, and in the extreme)? Doubtful.

This is why we had the fiasco with Sir Clive. I'm not even sure whether Sir Clive was the right person - my gut instinct says no. But I think the basic issue was not about him, per se, but about investing someone with the power to implement change.

Here's the shortlist: List

doctor_grey wrote:It is a vicious circle:
I'm not even sure whether Sir Clive was the right person - my gut instinct says no. But I think the basic issue was not about him, per se, but about investing someone with the power to implement change.

As sort of sums up a few qualities of the required candidate.

Now all we've got to do is to get the CEO and the board to find the man, appoint him and to take a step back and let him get on with it.

Seemples.

Give his "more is better" attitude and outdated views on what was required to achieve success in rugby were exposed as early as late 2003, and then his prehistoric views were consigned to history in 2005, I wonder whether his appointment to such a sensitive role wasn't a backward step anyway.

Sir Clive apparently is being approached after his Olympics stint finishes,BUT what exactly is the Job.Help Johnson with Coaching or Selecting England,developing England players instead of recycling SH imports?helping smaller Clubs compete with the Leicesters of the World.Promotion of events,Schoolboys and youth,A sides.Just what where is Rob Andrew in all this,is it just another scape goat when things go wrong.Or are they hoping he can some how conjure up another 1999-2003 side[before then they lost as many as they won].What exactly is his job description?

It seems to me that Woodward has always been far more commited to his olympic position, yet every month or so someone at the Telegraph suggests he's being considered for some role at the RFU which, a week or so later, he inevitably denies being interested in.

Is anyone else bored sh!tle$$ with all this cr@p? Of course we have a right, and a need, to know if those in charge of English rugby are incompetent, but I'm starting to feel that this is all being unnecessarily hyped up into some sort of tedious, overly dramatic spectacle. Get someone competent in charge, give them some time, and don't bore us with the details . . . you b@st@rds!