By Kath 17/3/04
April 7 2004

Sir Clive Woodward England's Head Coach talks to Zurich's Andrew Titheridge about England Player's Ticket Allocations and the Record now gone!

For immediate release: 17 March 2004
Issued on behalf of Zurich

Zurich Report with Clive Woodward
Speaking exclusively on www.zurichpremiership.com

Andrew Titheridge:  Clive, Ben Cohen has been hauled over the coals about giving tickets to a corporate company who aren't registered.  Is this rife amongst the team or is it just a one off?

Sir Clive Woodward:  I don't know that its rife, all that I do know is that I've got to take control of the situation which I have done. I think players passing on tickets to other people, their friends, rugby clubs, has been going on since I played and nothing's ever changed.  I think we're creating headline news because one or two of Ben Cohen's tickets ended up in the wrong hands.  To me he just made an error, it won't happen again and they have all apologised.  These guys set impeccable standards off the field and I see all the good sides of what they do. Now and then they make an error and here they've put their hands up and we've just got to move on.  We've got to make sure they know this cannot ever be repeated and it won't.

Andrew Titheridge: There is nothing else that's going to come out of the woodwork Clive, you're getting rid of all the demons and we can concentrate on rugby this week?

Sir Clive Woodward: You never know, its part of the job, these things happen.  We've had a fantastic run, this team is an absolute credit to their country England, and to British sport in general.  The way they operate is impeccable, compared with recent stories we've heard about other sports.  We've just got to take it all with a pinch of salt, a couple of tickets ending up in the wrong hands is not something to get carried away with.

Andrew Titheridge:    Its Twickenham on Saturday, we've got the loss out of the way.  We can now look forward?

Sir Clive Woodward:   Yes, we are starting again.  We don't like losing a game of rugby, its horrible to lose and I hate losing.  But now we've lost we can really start again - it's a new team, a new captain, it's the end of the Martin Johnson era - its finished now, the record at Twickenham which was an incredible record - 23 games without loss over a 4 and a half year period - was amazing and a tribute to a lot of people.  That record is gone now and we must get back to concentrating on beating Wales now and that's what we fully intend to do.

ENDS

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