Just when you think you can have a week off from updating your blog, when you think you can calm things and have a relatively low key week with "just" the Aviva Premier League to come at the weekend, along with an International game full of intrigue between the Aussies and the Barbarians, the Times somehow get hold of some documents and the brown stuff hits the ventilator in the International corridors once more.
If you've been living in a vacuum and have not picked up on this story yet, let me explain. Following the World Cup, a debrief took place, with players providing answers as to how they perceived things went. These are a frequent occurrence at the top level, and are the sporting equivalent of a "safe to say" meeting in a 'normal' business. An anonymous chance to be as critical as you are prepared to be. It would appear that someone, with no doubt an ulterior motive of some kind, has leaked some of the answers to the press, who have had a field day reporting on them today, justifying their belligerent badgering of the team in New Zealand while doing so.
It is all very disappointing. Every week another obstacle is placed in the path of progress. The RFU, who have rightly been criticised in the aftermath of the World Cup for their distance from Martin Johnson, their at times shambolic leadership and their lack of accountability relating to various decisions, have been trying to move forward in recent days, looking at new coaches and stopgap measures. For this leak to throw a proverbial spanner in the works is bad timing at best, machiavellian in all probability as someone within RFU Towers tries to create an opportunity for themselves.
People may say, well what about the criticism bandied about by the players? Personally, treated in context, and not taken in isolation, these comments, if treated with the seriousness with which they have been made, could be the real catalyst for change. The vast majority of players, if not all, who have had the incredible chance and honour to pull on a white jersey with a red rose adorning it, do so with the utmost pride, total dedication to the cause, oodles of self-belief and strength of personality. The comments they have made need to be taken seriously. They are the men who are on the field, literally, as they are being talked to by coaches and management alike. They are the ones who see the attitude of the men who are there to guide them to glory, or not as the case may be.
If these players say that a coach is not as good as 20 others in the Premier League, if they say that a coach changed his mind every five minutes and gave conflicting views of what he wanted, if they praise the loyalty of the manager while criticising those who saw this loyalty and used it to their own benefit, then I for one believe them and say that the RFU should do what to me has been patently obvious from Day 1.... (and I make no apologies for entering into metaphors here)
The slate needs wiping clean. The line in the sand needs drawing. The baby needs throwing out with the bathwater.
Step 1: Every member of the coaching staff needs to go now.
Step 2: An RFU Director of Rugby needs to be appointed. He should act as a guide to the full-time coach (if and when required)
Step 3: A new full-time coach needs appointing by the new Director of Rugby as soon as possible
Step 4: Said coach needs carte blanche (within a pre-determined budget) to appoint his team of coaching staff
Step 5: The coaching staff needs a contract that takes them through to the week after the 2015 World Cup Final, when everyone will have to reapply for their jobs if they want to stay
This is the only way I can see the mess being cleaned up.
In the past year we have seen farce after farce surround the upper echelons of the RFU: John Steele, Martyn Thomas, Rob Andrew, Martin Johnson, John Wells, Brian Smith, Dave Alred... big names with big salaries who have all either been called into question, sacked or resigned in the last 12 months for a catalogue of reasons.
It is time to sort things out RFU. The millions of rugby players and spectators who contribute week in and week out to the Union deserve better. Much better.
Angry? Me? You bet!
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