Woodwards Lions Regrets

British & Irish Lions Head Coach Sir Clive Woodward has spoken about the errors he made onlast summersLions tour.

The trip to New Zealand ended in failure with the visitors losing all three tests comfortably and Woodward blames himself for being too diplomatic and not being himself throughout the tour.

The head coach alsoattributed the injury to tour captain Brian O’Driscoll as being a massive factor in the loss, as well as defending his decision to take media spin doctor Alistair Campbell on tour.

Speaking on the UK’s Radio Five Live Woodward said “I just wasn’t myself. I was so conscious of trying to keep everyone happy and not cause any problems. One of the Ireland players had a word with me one day and said, ‘we’re just all disappointed – you’re trying to be too diplomatic’.

Referring to an pre-tour incident believed to involve Wales centre Gavin Henson he said “I regret not being myself. I didn’t know the players well enough, I wasn’t making the tough calls. One particular player had said something before we even left. If that had been the England camp the guy’s feet wouldn’t have even touched the ground, he wouldn’t have got on the plane.”

Commenting on the O’Driscoll incident Woodward added “The O’Driscoll incident was massive – in no way was that just one of those things. To see them not even cite the players involved… it just wasn’t right.”

Woodward championed the cause of his media liason officer Alistair Campbell and insisted he would have done a great job for the team if he had been left alone to do it “It didn’t make any difference at all to us winning or losing a Test match, It was the press who came to me and said: ‘You’re totally underpowered on your media side.’

“I spoke to Jane and said: ‘Who’s the heaviest hitting media person?’ She said Alistair Campbell. I set out to get this person. If the media had let him get on with his job he could’ve done a great job.”

Woodward is now the Director of Football at football club Southampton FC.