Woodward fires Twickenham salvo

England rugby manager Clive Woodward fired a broadside at Twickenham yesterday over the governing body's failure to avert the players' 34-hour strike.

'The RFU has to take a large responsibility for what has happened,' he said.

'To allow the dispute to get to this position was totally unacceptable. The most important thing is that the players and the RFU are happy with the deal.

'It's wrong of me to apportion blame. Never in my wildest dreams did I think it would come to a strike. There are no winners, no losers. This should never have happened but my respect for the players has not diminished one iota. 'They know I disagreed with their action, but they stuck together to a man and proved they were right. They got what they wanted and I'm happy.'

Despite his sense of 'betrayal' over the strike action, Woodward denied that he considered resigning over the stand-off and revealed that he had given skipper Martin Johnson an ultimatum in the dressing room during the euphoric aftermath of last Saturday's win over Australia.

'I said to 'Johnno':"Get this sorted out on Monday and don't leave the room until a deal is done. Don't have your row with me. Have it with the management board and sort it out." 'I was sick and tired of the whole thing but maybe, on reflection, I made it a little too confrontational.'

In doing so, Woodward at least ensured that the boil would be lanced sooner than later, but he also exposed himself to criticism for getting too involved. 'If you are in charge, you have to take responsibility,' he said.

'I didn't want to be dramatic about it, but you can't walk away. You have to front up when things are going well and you front up just the same when they're not.