He said: "I am not whinging again and I hope that the seven years I have been in the job have not been wasted. We won the World Cup by inches and you cannot do that if you compromise. I may be in a minority of one, but it doesn't mean I am wrong.
"When people are not listening to you then you have to do something about it. I am amazed and saddened the RFU and the clubs have taken us down this road and I have to move on.
"After seven years, the battles become tiresome and I am not falling on my sword.
"You cannot take any short cuts or compromises if you want to be the best and there has been a lot of apathy since we returned from the World Cup. No one has the teeth in the RFU to do something about it and there are strange characters who run the clubs. We are going backwards and you don't win World Cups by compromising.
"From the moment the plane landed at Heathrow after our World Cup win, I was out of control of things.
"The agreement for player release for England duty with the clubs has been watered down instead of improved and I was back in the same meetings with the same people and I found that staggering.
"I have to agree to disagree with the RFU over this but once you are in the mind set that things are not going to improve then you have to stand down. I was not prepared to make any more compromises and the situation has got confused with talk of football because my commitment to the Lions is absolute.
"I will not be talking about any job from anyone until that tour is over. The England job is the biggest in rugby and I need to start planning for something elsewhere and I have been contacted by other sports.
"I have a tremendous amount to learn from football and I have to start at the bottom. I am not stupid. I don't know where I will end up."
