Sir Clive Woodward will face a Celtic backlash today for the manner of his departure from England last week when, after seven successful years, he ripped into his former employers and was reported as saying he preferred football to rugby. But the former England coach should be confirmed as the head coach for the Lions tour to New Zealand next year.
The Lions committee meets in Dublin to discuss the position of Woodward and Wales are the unhappiest of the three Celtic unions, believing that he should have acted with more dignity and been more mindful of his position with the Lions, which demands that he be on good terms with all four home unions. The chief source of their displeasure, though, is believed to be Woodward's approach to Gareth Jenkins to join his coaching staff for the 10-match trip.
Jenkins, the Llanelli Scarlets head coach, was turned down for the Wales job earlier this year and became embroiled in a public spat with the Welsh Rugby Union after learning of his fate from one of his players, an episode which had echoes in Twickenham last week. The WRU chief executive David Moffett and its chairman David Pickering both said they had no comment to make on Woodward ahead of the meeting.
Wales have refused to release any of their national coaching team to the Lions, but Moffett conceded the union had no power to prevent any of its regional coaches to accept an invitation to go on the New Zealand tour. Scotland are more concerned; Woodward said last week that Ian McGeechan, the Scottish Rugby Union's director of rugby, would be part of his coaching team next year.
"No one has approached us about the availability of Ian, who is our employee," said an SRU spokesman. "There is no official position on Clive Woodward and our representative Gordon Dixon will assess things at the meeting."
Like Scotland, the Irish Rugby Football Union does not share Wales's outrage, not least because the removal of Woodward, who has not signed a contract with the Lions, would probably see the Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan installed his place, risking the conflicts which bedevilled Graham Henry, who was then the Wales coach, with the 2001 Lions in Australia.
"I would have thought that Clive Woodward's departure from England would lead to rejoicing among the Lions committee," said the Wales scrum-half Robert Howley, a Lion in 1997 and again four years ago, who will be out of action until November because of a wrist injury. "It means he will be able to devote all his time to the Lions cause and he has shown over the years how capable he is of managing and organising a squad.
"I saw at first hand the problem Graham Henry had three years ago. He went into the Six Nations Championship wearing two hats, and during the tour he had to tell his own players that they were not good enough to play in the Test side. Clive will have no conflict now when it comes to choosing someone from England or one of the Celtic nations and to me that makes his position stronger. I would be very surprised if he were to lose his position."
The three Sanzar unions, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, have been sweating over how their new television deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation will look after the current contract ends next year. They have tried to improve the package by adding two teams to the Super 12, one from Bloemfontein and, probably, Perth, and adding a third round to the Tri-Nations which was already played on a home and away basis.
Sanzar is unlikely to enjoy the A$55m (£22.5m) a year it currently receives when the new deal, which will last until 2011, is signed, and the extra weekends the three unions have committed to will see current international players in South Africa and New Zealand not playing in their domestic provincial championships.
The unions will find it harder to squeeze in incoming tours as the demands on players mount still further in the chase for the dollar.
