Sir Clive Woodward is finally gone but he will not be forgotten at Twickenham in a hurry after an extraordinary farewell outburst yesterday in which he took deliberate aim at the heart of English rugby, condemning the Rugby Football Union as toothless and apathetic and accusing the union of complacency since England's World Cup triumph.
On a day when vapour trails of vitriol flashed across the otherwise clear blue skies over south-west London, Woodward also laid into unsupportive Premiership club owners and directors of rugby for helping to push him into resigning from "the best job in the world" and confirmed he would be leaving rugby after next summer's Lions tour to New Zealand.
His immediate plan is to divide his time between preparing for the Lions trip and studying for his Football Association grade two coaching award, although he will not be taking up any paid role awaiting him at Southampton until his Lions commitments are completed. In the meantime, however, he has stirred up a political hornet's nest of massive proportions and made an awful lot of people within English rugby very angry.
According to Woodward, it was the endless club versus country rows and the decision to decrease the number of training days he is allowed with the national squad from 20 to 16 that lay at the heart of his decision to resign after seven years. "I can't believe we've gone backwards since the World Cup," he stormed yesterday, recounting what he described as "staggering" meetings "with the same old dull people" after the World Cup. "I was really hoping that after we'd won the World Cup someone would sit me down and say, 'OK, what do you want now?' But since we came back there's been a lot of apathy."
Even more eye-watering was his complaint that prominent Premiership club figures - he named Bath's John Connolly and Wasps' Warren Gatland - had destabilised his regime. "You can't control your players through 12 directors of rugby when three-quarters are from overseas and the rest want your job anyway. They're supposed to be working with me but there's no one in this organisation with the teeth to sort these people out.
"Gatland made a comment on the last tour. Connolly came out with something against me the other day. When directors of rugby sound off, there's only one person who cops it and that's me. I've had little or no support from the people I was representing. It's not easy dealing with some very strange characters who run the rugby clubs."
There was more, much more, but the gist was that the RFU will struggle to win the 2007 World Cup unless they can get their players centrally contracted as happens elsewhere in the British Isles and much of the southern hemisphere. This argument, however, conveniently ignores the increasingly viable club set-up in England, and Wasps chairman Chris Wright was swift to criticise Woodward's scattergun attack.
"It is ridiculous for Clive to have a pop at us and I am fed up with it," said Wright. "After England won the World Cup, he paid tribute to the clubs for helping provide the foundations: it can't be right then and wrong now, which makes me think there is more to his departure than meets the eye.
"Club owners put this show on the road by investing their resources and Clive has done well in terms of player release. We feel that the balance is right and rugby is not just about the England team - look at the crowds who turn up for club fixtures."
Premier Rugby's Howard Thomas is equally peeved and is seeking urgent talks with Woodward's acting replacement. "I would like to meet Andy Robinson as soon as possible to talk about the way forward," he said. "We recognise that Clive's legacy is enormous but the English game is about more than just the national side.
"Clive ranted about his access to players, but if he follows the road to soccer he will quickly learn that compared to Sven-Goran Eriksson he was in the land of luxury. The top players spend 35% of their time with England, a far higher percentage than the likes of David Beckham do. Given all that Clive has achieved, I wish he had gone out with a smile on his face rather than sourly."
Connolly did his best to be diplomatic, agreeing with Woodward that the elite player squad agreement governing England's top stars is flawed, but suggested any lack of co-operation was a matter of pots and kettles. '"He has never contacted me or come to one of our training sessions and when I tried to call him last year to see how he saw Iain Balshaw's game developing, I never had any response. In contrast, Matt Williams of Scotland and Wales's Mike Ruddock regularly talk to me even though we only have one international from Scotland and one from Wales.
"The fact that I am not English does not mean I do not want England to succeed. I am just sorry Clive felt he had to go out on a sour note because his accomplishments in recent years have been amazing."
Ducking beneath the brickbats, the RFU's chief executive Francis Baron said talks about Woodward's long-term successor would commence next week. Woodward is demanding Robinson be given the job permanently as soon as possible; yesterday's score-settling, however, may not have done his former assistant many favours.
