Woodward's warrior will bounce back

Lawrence Dallaglio and Sir Clive Woodward awoke yesterday to the same grim conclusion - their worldbeating partnership is over.

An alliance afflicted every so often by various stresses of public life, from a drugs scandal to the more mundane conflicts over team selection and strategical planning, had survived long enough for them to do something that had never been done before.

Not content with helping create one Antipodean epic, they were attempting another before going their separate ways. Like mountaineers reaching ever upwards towards the most forbidding peak, they began plotting the Lions' expedition in a little seaside resort in Devon late last summer.

Dallaglio had gone to Woodward's holiday retreat in Salcombe to inform him that he was resigning his England duties with immediate effect...only to discover that he wasn't the only one. Woodward confided that he, too, was resigning and when both had got over the surprise, they began talking about the Lions.

Now, with Dallaglio lying in hospital, their plans are in ruins. 'I know how much this tour meant to Lawrence and how hard he had worked to make it,' said Woodward. 'It's very sad that it should end like this, but these things happen and you've got to get on with it.'

Dallaglio, not Martin Johnson, was the new England coach's choice as captain when the Woodward revolution began almost eight years ago. And when Dallaglio fell victim to a Sunday newspaper entrapment, Woodward went out on a limb to defend him over the consequent drug allegations.

Forced to resign to concentrate on clearing his name, Dallaglio eventually regained command five years later in the wake of Johnson's post-World Cup retirement. By then, the Dallaglio-Woodward relationship had cooled. Although neither party has ever said so publicly, two matches highlighted the straining of their partnership.

The first, Australia at Twickenham on November 16, 2002, came seven days after England had scraped past a less than full strength All Blacks. Dallaglio's demotion to the bench against the Wallabies denied him the honour of leading England out for his 50th cap.