Rugby Players could be named!

England tour of New Zealand: Implicated players could be named as gloom deepensBy Paul Ackford


Last Updated: 10:06am BST 22/06/2008


The identities of four England rugby union players alleged to have had some involvement in a serious sexual assault in the Hilton Hotel, Auckland, could be disclosed on their return home.


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Senior Rugby Football Union figures, concerned at the damage done to the reputation of individuals not implicated in the incident, are considering setting up an internal disciplinary investigation and are prepared to name names.

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The matter will be decided by Jeff Blackett, the RFU's disciplinary officer and the Judge Advocate General. "Clearly we have to do something," Blackett said. "The team can't come back and nothing happens. Something's got to happen and something has to be made public. The consideration that there are a number of entirely uninvolved players, and that unless others are named those innocent players may be tainted by association, is a consideration we have to think about."
To deepen England's gloom, they suffered their second-worst margin of defeat against the All Blacks when they went down 44-12 in Christchurch yesterday, and in doing so lost the Test series 2-0.
Speculation has been intense around England's Christchurch hotel as to which of the squad may have been party to the alleged assault. Fourteen names have been mentioned, and several players are aggrieved that no one is above suspicion.
On Friday, RFU chief executive Francis Baron said he expected internal disciplinary procedures to begin once the police investigation had run its course. However, on legal advice, England players refused to talk to members of the Auckland police who flew to Christchurch on Thursday, and there is still no indication as to when, or if, a formal complaint will be made.
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The matter is further complicated in that there are a number of incidents alleged to have taken place at the team hotel on the morning after that first Test. "There are bound to be internal disciplinary issues," Blackett said. "It wouldn't be a question of did X have sex with Y? It would be more a matter of did anyone put themselves in a situation by breaking team rules where those allegations could be made?"
At present there are no specific regulations in England's disciplinary protocol which refer to female company. However, on July 1, when Martin Johnson officially takes over as manager and the new agreement governing England's top 32 players begins, players will have to sign a code of conduct which is considerably more detailed.
Blackett may also come under pressure to examine the leadership of Baron and Rob Andrew, the RFU's elite director of rugby and the team's temporary manager. On Thursday, one of the England coaches let slip that tour discipline had been lax, that players were effectively calling the shots and that this had been the case for a long while.
Baron and Andrew have already attracted adverse comment. Before England left for New Zealand, at a RFU council meeting, both were criticised for their handling of the appointment of Johnson as England's new team manager and the demotion of head coach Brian Ashton. Council members expressed disquiet at Baron's style of management, which was described as "unnecessarily confrontational".
Allegations were also made that Baron had unilaterally sold 1,000 debentures in Twickenham's new South Stand to commercial operations, raising around £6 million. Under RFU regulations, most matters relating to ticketing come under the remit of the Council. Some Council members are so incensed at the way they have been treated that they are determined to get rid of Baron within 15 months.

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Yesterday, Andrew was back in the hot seat and at pains to play down suggestions that England had been on another 'tour from hell'. The original 'tour from hell' was in 1998, when Clive Woodward's under-strength England suffered two hammerings at the hands of the All Blacks and heavy defeats to both Australia and South Africa.
"This was certainly not a tour from hell, by any stretch of the imagination," Andrew said. "We wanted to learn about our younger players, and we have learned some really good things."
Read the latest from Paul Ackford

England Rugby ~ What a shambles....

Rugby Has Gone Mad!
Six Nations England
by cwatts81 (U8942103) 16 April 2008

The rest of the Rugby World must be loving this. Its a shambles and we clealy dont have a clear view of where we are going next.Surely we are not going to have a review after every tournament and create this media circus!We are going to have a Manager now? one that chooses tactics and teams but does not play a hand in training? We have an "Elite Director of Rugby" who makes one decision, then goes back on it despite finishin second in the World Cup and second in the Six nations all in less than two years.This is mess and the Rugby World is laughin at us.One man is responsible, not Ashton, not Ford, not Baron......Rob Andrew, get that clown out of there and lets get back to basics....cos this is horrible.

Does Shaun have a point?

Johnson has management mettle, but chemistry with Ashton?

Any euphoria over Martin Johnson's return must be tempered with understanding that management and coaching are very different beasts

Shaun Edwards
March 28, 2008 12:30 AM

Can he do it? Absolutely. It obviously matters that Martin Johnson hasn't managed a side before. A little experience is always helpful. But if you had to pick a man to lead England - not coach them - then I see no problem.
Managing and coaching are different. No matter how good a player you were, you go straight down to the bottom rung again when you choose to coach. The learning process starts all over again, so it's best to be humble, stick to what you know and pick up the bits and pieces as you go along.
Coaches never stop learning. Being with Wales has made me a better coach, no doubt about it. Test rugby is a hot-house environment, but ideas come from many sources. In the early days guys like Brian Ashton and Clive Griffiths were incredibly helpful and I owe them a lot, but one of the best ideas I've heard about rucking and counter-rucking came from a bright young coach involved in junior rugby.
Management is different. Part is about putting things in place to ensure that the team have the best possible chance of success.
Depending on the budget, it's about finding the best medic, physio, kit man, masseur, media guru and chef, and putting them alongside savvy coaches - forwards, back, defence, set-piece fitness, however you want to carve it up - assistant coaches and video analysts. And Johnson had a good teacher in Sir Clive Woodward. England's squad of 30 for the 2003 World Cup - 31 when Simon Shaw was added - were supported by another 18 backroom staff, including a visual awareness coach in Sherylle Calder, a South African who went on to work with Jake White's World Cup-winning Springboks in France last year.
Johnson hasn't been away from rugby that long. In fact he seems to have spent the last couple of years in the international rugby orbit, so he will know the right people. But it's also about setting the right tone and getting the chemistry right.
I've only met Johnson socially, so I've never experienced the man at work. Those that have say he has an uncluttered mind, speaks directly and without the mumbo jumbo that too often confuses messages. In the heat of battle a brooding look often seemed enough and I know a journalist who insists that a Johnson scowl was enough to cut short any idea of asking whether he intended to prolong his international career after 2003.
But go back to the chemistry thing. I've been lucky since I moved into coaching after rugby league. My first boss was Nigel Melville, who knew his way around, had been in place at Wasps since the start of the professional era and was prepared to give me a chance.
Under Nigel I developed my own ideas, but it was not until he brought in Warren Gatland, before leaving for Gloucester, that I had someone to bounce them off and found that we were in agreement about things like the blitz defence and keeping the ball in play longer.
The chemistry was so good that when we independently drew up lists of what needed to be done at Wasps they were frighteningly similar. They were put into action and the result was three league championships and one Heineken Cup before Warren went off to Waikato, to be replaced by Ian McGeechan, very much my rock when Warren got the Wales job and asked me to help.
Ian, above everyone else, understood why I wanted to do it, argued my corner when necessary and had the faith to believe that Wasps would benefit. Chemistry.
That's why you can feel for Ashton. He - and Andy Robinson before him - has struggled with a structure that probably hasn't been right since Woodward resigned. Both men asked in vain for a manager to work with them on matters beyond their obvious skill sets.
Can Ashton now work with Johnson? They did so successfully with England eight years ago, but that was a player-coach relationship. Whether a new manager who has total control can work with a coach who got to the World Cup final only five months ago is something else.
If Johnson's England go one better in New Zealand in 2011 you can bet on one thing: that his first piece of management will have been to get the right men around him.

Martin Johnson for England Role ??????

But who will be running England if Johnson is brought in??

Andrews, Ashton or Johnston.............What a befuddled set up England is !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Martin Johnson set to take England role

World Cup winning captain set for top job with England
Andy Bull
Thursday March 20, 2008guardian.co.uk

Photograph: Getty Images

The Rugby Football Union are believed to be on the verge of confirming that Martin Johnson will be appointed as general manager of the England team. Speculation has been mounting that Johnson would take on the job since the RFU's review of the Six Nations tournament last Tuesday.

Negotiations between Johnson and the RFU are believed to be fully underway, and it is expected he will start work in time for England's tour of New Zealand this June.

Johnson, 38, famously led England to victory in the 2003 World Cup.

Since retiring in 2005 he has restricted himself to media punditry and corporate work, despite heavy speculation that he would take up a role with England in 2007. Johnson repeatedly denied interest in taking up a role with England, saying that he lacked the necessary experience for the role.

MY TAKE ~ STAY BEING A PUNDIT MARTIN ~ YOU AIN'T GOOD ENOUGH!!!!!!