Woodward vents fury on NZRFU

By WYNNE GRAY

An unrepentant Sir Clive Woodward has condemned New Zealand for dobbing him in to the International Rugby Board, slamming deputy chief executive Steve Tew for his comments.

The England coach came out slugging again yesterday as he reiterated his dismal opinion of the officials who sent off England lock Simon Shaw in the Eden Park test against the All Blacks.

After refusing to comment when the NZRFU revealed it had sent a recording of Woodward's press conference to the IRB, the England coach could not restrain himself yesterday in Brisbane.

"If the chief executive (sic) decides to speak to a local newspaper and not do it by an official statement or official press conference, I don't think that is the way forward on things like that," he said.

"I do press conferences and answer questions put by you fellows.

"If the NZRU and the IRB want to stop me going to press conferences, that would be fantastic, marvellous."

Woodward was sure he did not deserve any punishment for his Eden Park pronouncements.

"We have a big British Lions series in New Zealand next year and it has given an opportunity to whoever this guy is," he said of Tew. "I would not know who he is even if I was standing next to him.

"It is wrong for a New Zealand official to speak to one local newspaper and make these allegations without doing it officially.

"I don't think it was too clever from him either so I'm sure the IRB will investigate him as well."

Woodward said he had coached for more than seven years and 80 tests and could not recall saying "no comment" to any question. He said it was appropriate that coaches were interviewed after games as part of the test entertainment package. Sometimes coaches made a mistake and had to apologise.

"In saying that, I don't think I made any slip," Woodward said.

"What I did was question how a linesman could send a player from the field when he didn't actually know which one was the player.

"That was a fairly constructive thing to say. I know exactly what I said after the game and I don't retract anything I said. Unless I said anything hideous or criminal I don't think I said anything wrong."

* His outburst over, Woodward turned his critical eye on the referee in England's penalty shootout soccer defeat at Euro 2004. He could not believe England were denied a late winning goal to Sol Campbell.

"It was a ridiculous decision and cost a team going through. It looked a perfectly legitimate goal. It was just a bad error from the referee."