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Bring back Woodward urges Johnson

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Woodward should quit Saints and rejoin England's rugby team says cup-winning captain Johnson

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- England's World Cup-winning coach Clive Woodward should be called on to get the national team back on track says the skipper who lifted the glittering trophy in 2003.

Martin Johnson believes Woodward, who stepped down in 2004 to take up a job on the coaching staff with Southampton football club, is the only man for the job.

"The RFU (Rugby Football Union) either want to fix it or they don't," the now-retired Johnson said in an interview with Wednesday's Times newspaper.

"Clive is the man. He sees the bigger picture and England has to be the bigger picture. He has a proven track record. He's the only coach England have really had in the professional era. He has a wealth of experience."

England had been badly in decline in Woodward's latter months and since his former number two Andy Robinson took over the slide has continued with two fourth-place finishes in the last two Six Nations championships.

They have slipped to sixth in the world rankings and, though Woodward said this week that he was enjoying his job at second division Southampton, the calls for his return continued.

Johnson, who retired from international rugby after the World Cup, said his former boss should be given an overall supervisory role.

"He should have the role that oversees everything. He is an ideas man. A lot of what he did was long term. He did not do much hands-on coaching and that's not the role he would like but he had the right guys there doing that," he said in the Times.

"The best thing the RFU did was back Clive after the 1999 World Cup and give him time. The ironic thing is that people who were calling for his head then, now want him back.

"He was the right man then and would be the right man now."

Robinson has had his usual post-tournament review meeting with RFU chief executive Francis Baron with some newspapers speculating that the result will be changes to Robinson's back-up team.

There is also a view that Robinson could benefit from the addition of a manager to work alongside him, leaving him to concentrate on hands-on coaching.

A return for Woodward, at any level, would not please all the players and there are many within the RFU who would be opposed.

One of the reasons Woodward cited for standing down was his frustration with the inability of the RFU and the English clubs to give him more training time with his international squad.

Johnson said that his former boss's ability to take on the game's power-brokers is vital if the England team are to prosper and if the issue of too much rugby is to be addressed.

"That is why Clive would be perfect. Those are his strengths and what he demonstrated when he was with England," Johnson said.

"He gets to the root of the problem. A lot of the stuff he did might not have been specific to a particular game at the weekend, but for the greater good in the long run.

"He has ambition, can take people on, is not afraid of confrontation. He could be fairly ruthless and always wanted to win. For Clive, second-best was not enough.

"He didn't want England to be one of the best, but THE best.

"We all wanted that. It drove us on. Clive took risks. He shielded us from the rubbish. I would really like to see him back. Who else is qualified to do it?"

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