By Kath 15/3/04
March 15 2004

Sir Clive Woodward England's Head Coach talks to Zurich's Andrew Titheridge about England's Lineout and Steve Thompson plus retiring players

For immediate release: 15 March 2004
Issued on behalf of Zurich

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

Andrew Titheridge: Clive, the team for Saturday - you haven't panicked but a few changes?

Sir Clive Woodward: I was never going to panic its good to see a few of the established players coming back. I think we missed Mike Tindall and with him being picked that allows Jason Robinson to move to the position he likes the best and where I like him playing best and that's fullback. Grewcock's coming back, we've clearly missed Danny, he was the guy along with Simon Shaw that's been earmarked to replace Martin Johnson. Missing both those players last weekend was a big blow to us.

So Grewcock comes back and the other main news is that Jones starts ahead of Worsley. We've looked very closely at that, based on what happened with our line out in the Irish game.  We've got to absolutely guarantee our line up ball to go with Kay, Grewcock and Jones is a big bonus for us. Again on the same theme White comes back (on the bench).

He comes in on merit which means the non selection of Jason Leonard and Matt Stevens. White has played two full games for Leicester. The same applies to Mike Catt, he played well for the A team last weekend so we've got a very experienced side back. I'm very excited about it and hopefully this will put the very poor performance last weekend against Ireland behind us.

Andrew Titheridge: A lot of people blame Steve Thompson the hooker but he's still in the side?

Sir Clive Woodward:  I haven't blamed Thompson at all. The line out was a shambles by our own standard, I think we lost 11 on our own throw but to me, that's the reason we lost the game. It's there in black and white, if you don't win 11 line outs on your own ball you're never going to win the game, but that was the kind of symptom not the cause.

One of the causes is that we've been doing so many things since the World Cup that we've not been at our best and a performance like the one against Ireland was waiting to happen.  I'm glad its happened sooner rather than later, its been a massive wake up call for everyone in the squad from me downwards.  We can take it playing badly one week but we can't afford to do it ever again.  I'm glad to see some familiar faces back in white - Grewcock and Tindall, which allows us to pick a fairly settled team.

Andrew Titheridge: The squad of 22, as you say Clive, is a very settled side. They can concentrate on playing rugby rather than what is going on off the pitch?

Sir Clive Woodward: I hope so, I'm in charge here.  But everybody in the squad fully understands why we won the World Cup and why we're the number one ranked team in the world, and how easy it is to let it slip. It's my job to make sure that we get standards we've created on the pitch onto the pitch and right back to where they're supposed to be.

I pride myself on England being the best prepared team and setting standards above any other team. I think they've slipped after the World Cup through nobody's fault but everybody has got to take responsibility for this, especially me. We're now back together again and have had the wake up  call, but I'll just repeat - Ireland deserved to win, but I think history will look back on this and say its an important lesson the players had to learn.

Andrew Titheridge: No temptation to change all the World Cup boys and have a completely new side?

Sir Clive Woodward: No not at all, that would have been a mammoth overreaction. As I said it wasn't down to Steve Thompson or Kay or Borthwick in the line out, it was a kind of end result of a very poor period of preparation for us going
against a world class team that Ireland are. You've got to hold your hand up, fortunately we've got another game this weekend and I promised everyone that they'll see a different England performance this weekend.

Andrew Titheridge: Neil Back from Zurich Premiership Club Leicester, joining Jason Leonard in retiring at the end of the season?

Sir Clive Woodward: I had a long chat with Neil Back on Friday night. I was disappointed when he said he wasn't available for the tour and that he was going to retire but that was Neil's decision and he's been a fantastic servant.

It's like all these players - Leonard, Back, Johnson - you've just got to applaud them and say well done but that didn't effect my selection here at all.  If I felt Back was the right selection this weekend I would play him. I've gone for our strongest back row and it doesn't include Neil. It's sad to see these guys go but its going to happen at some stage.

England are always going through change and with the side we've got out, if we can get everything right between the ears, I have no doubt we can move on to be a lot stronger and better team than even we were during the World Cup.

ENDS