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Clive Woodward's comments about Conor O'Shea have been roundly condemned
By Online Editors
Comments made by Sir Clive Woodward about Italian headcoach Conor O'Shea following England's thrashing of Italy have been roundly condemned.
England ran in eight tries as they outclassed and overpowered Italy 57-14 at Twickenham to stay in the hunt for the Six Nations title.
Eddie Jones' side were in total control throughout on Saturday as tries by Jamie George, Jonny May, Manu Tuilagi and Brad Shields had the bonus point in the bag and a 31-7 lead by halftime, with Tommaso Allan grabbing the visitors' lone score.
However in the ITV post-game coverage Woodward questioned Conor O'Shea's demeanor before the match in Twickenham.
Addressing the panel, Woodward said: "Conor, great guy and all that stuff but he is smiling and joking before the game and I think that's not professional sport".
Twitter didn't take kindly to his words:
Ironically, O'Shea credits a meeting with Woodward as changing his career when they met in a hotel in 1995.
"I was pretty disillusioned with rugby," he told the Irish Independent last year. "It's funny how Clive changed things.
"Bringing over so many Irish guys (to London Irish) kicked the IRFU into saying we have to change and that's how the Irish rugby system we see today was born. And he introduced me to my future wife too. So that has to be good!"
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Latest Comments
Steve Borthwick appointment was misguided based on two flawed premises.
1. An overblown sense of the quality of the premiership rugby. The gap between the Premiership and Test rugby is enormous
2. England needed an English coach who understood English Rugby and it's traditional strengths.
SB won the premiership and was an England forward and did a great job with the Japanese forwards but neither of those qualify you as a tier 1 test manager.
Maybe Felix Jones and Aled Walter's departures are down to the fact that SB is a details man, which work at club level but at test level you need the manager to manage and let the coaches get on and do what they are employed for.
SB criticism of players is straight out of Eddie Jones playbook but his loyalty to keeping out of form players borne out of his perceived sense of betrayal as a player.
In all it doesn't stack up as the qualities needed to be a modern Test coach /Manager
Go to commentsBut still Australians. Only Australia can help itself seems to be the key message.
Blaming Kiwis is deflecting from the actual problem.
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