Wray: It's a fantastic move for Woodward

"I would go for it and I believe that having scaled the summit of winning the World Cup then it's going to be very difficult to do it again in four years' time - particularly having seen so many players retire recently.

"It would be a good move for him - and the England rugby team in terms of getting things in place for 2007. In a high profile sport there is no such thing as a secret and an interesting one gets out."

Chris Wright, the owner of London Wasps, has even more experience of football than Wray. Wright endured considerable personal abuse during his chairmanship of Queens Park Rangers and needed personal security during the roughest periods of his leadership.

After bringing London Wasps under the Loftus Road umbrella with QPR, he then took the rugby club with him when exiting football and has been rewarded with some of the happiest sporting days of his life, including last season's Heineken Cup and Zurich Premiership double.

Wright has cautionary words for Woodward if he intends to go down the road to football. He said: "In football you cannot win - and that's the bottom line. The reason it's impossible is because the expectation of the fans is always greater than whatever you achieve.

"If a team gets promotion to Division Two then the fans want Division One football the following season and then a place in the Premiership. If your goalkeeper lets in a crucial goal then they will have a go at you because you didn't spend £5million to get a better keeper. Even Manchester United fans are unhappy no matter how successful they are and I am sure that Chelsea and Arsenal fans believe the grass is greener elsewhere.

"The person who I believe has done the most fantastic job moving sports is Mick Channon, who finished his playing career and then became an incredible racehorse trainer. I take my hat off to him because he has moved into a totally different culture and been very successful."

Wright believes there is one other person worthy of mention when it came to crossing over from rugby to football - his club captain Lawrence Dallaglio, who yesterday retired from international rugby.

Wright said: "I remember we did a photo session when Wasps and QPR came together at Loftus Road with Lawrence Dallaglio and Trevor Sinclair. Lawrence got hold of a ball and was juggling it, using his knee to keep the ball up and I thought then that if we had him in the back four we could not lose. I still believe that would have been true."