Jason Robinson fears RFU panel lacks key men from 2003 Rugby World Cup triumph

Big omission: Sir Clive Woodward, celebrating in 2003, is not on the RFU panel
(ODD ANDERSEN/AFP/Getty Images)
Chris Jones20 October 2015

Jason Robinson believes the RFU have “wasted” the opportunity to let England’s 2003 World Cup-winning heroes shape the future of the sport.

While Ben Kay, who played in the victorious team, is on the five-man panel that will review England’s disastrous World Cup, Robinson is mystified by the absence of Sir Clive Woodward, the Cup-winning coach and Jason Leonard, the RFU president, from the list of men who will sit in judgment of head coach Stuart Lancaster.

RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie leads the panel, which also features Kay, Sir Ian McGeechan, the most successful Lions coach, Professional Game Board chairman Ian Metcalfe and former FA chief executive Ian Watmore. The Union was at pains today to emphasise the men chosen were objective enough to make the right calls.

Standard Sport columnist Robinson, who scored England’s only try in their 2003 triumph over Australia, also highlighted the fact the RFU have ignored World Cup-winning members of their own Council, Phil Vickery and Richard Hill.

He said: “There have been opportunities to get Clive back involved in England and maybe the horse has bolted. He would be a good person to have on the panel because he wouldn’t hold back and the key is to take the game forward because there are lots of questions to be answered about England’s World Cup campaign. The good thing is there is one in there — Ben Kay — and he knows the game.

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“The England coaching staff have done a lot of good things and now it’s about asking if they can take England to the next level.

“The key will be to ask the right questions and we do have lot of people who can do that. Jason Leonard is the president while Richard Hill and Phil Vickery are on the RFU and they have a lot of knowledge about the good and bad times with England.

“We have not tapped into 2003 but it was the most successful period for England and it would seem such a waste that we have never really used that knowledge and experience.

“Martin Johnson was in there for a while but it didn’t end very well due to the support around him. These are people well respected in the game and every other business uses their talent and that input is not the same when it comes to the RFU.”

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Robinson wants clarification over Woodward’s position and if he was asked to be part of the panel and turned it down or was not considered.

“As long as we get the right outcome that is the main thing,” he added. “Maybe they don’t want people who might upset the apple cart too much.

“We are trying to make England the best possible team they can and if you are never going to tap into real knowledge how are you ever going to learn. No one has had the success in English rugby that Clive achieved.”

Lawrence Dallaglio, another 2003 hero, has also questioned why Woodward is not involved in the process of restoring pride back into English rugby. The former England No8 said: “Clive has won the World Cup so surely he must be qualified on how things should be taken forward.”

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