And when the player on the end of the rope is, say, the 6ft, 19st tighthead Kees Meeuws, it takes quite a tug. Meeuws quit his French club Castres in June after a fall-out with the coach and Harlequins, desperate to sign big in the front five on their return to the Premiership, offered £130,000 a year for the 32-year-old veteran of 42 All Black Tests They were not even close. Meeuws could name his price at more than £200,000 a year, including a house and a car, and another French side, Agen, paid it. "There's no doubt a tighthead prop is more valuable than any other player because there's fewer of them of the right quality," says Mike Burton, a leading player agent and veteran of England's front row of the 1970s when men were men and referees let them get on with it. Think the tighthead prop, the best of whom are earning a cool quarter of a million pounds a year. Based on their rarity value and specialist skills, props - and particularly tightheads - have been the subject of almost every significant tug of war in this year's transfer market. You've got to work within the system."That may be problematic. Though he remains England's most successful major sports team coach since Sir Alf Ramsey, Woodward could still come to be regarded by some performance directors as an interfering one-World Cup wonder.
Woodward, who was at Loughborough with Seb Coe and recalls watching him, insists he will retreat diplomatically if his advice to a particular sport is unwel-come. He is humble enough to accept: "I've got a lot to learn."Having arrived at this juncture, he sees no way back "In six years' time I will be 56. I cannot see myself going back into frontline coaching," Woodward says. "I don't see myself going to rugby or football."Only time will tell whether Woody, having pecked at different possibilities has, at last, discovered his true nesting place.. Cast your eye over your favourite rugby team and who do you think is the best paid? Maybe that wing, with the dazzling sidestep and a kit bag full of hair gel? How about the fly-half with the boot of gold and a smile to melt your mother's heart? Think again. Ultimately, you've got to be very sensitive to other people's views and standing.
But in this role, a lot of the sports are run really well and UK Sport are doing an outstanding job. I hope I can help some of the newer [and less successful] Olympic sports by just being around."He adds: "I know Sue [Campbell] very well We speak regularly We've met once a year since we left Loughborough Politics are involved in most things in sport. "It's a good thing to put in the press, but in the real world it's not going to happen To do this job, you have to have everyone with you In my rugby job, you had to create conflict to get it done. Maybe that's what gave me the tick over the other candidates. I may have got this job because of my time at Southampton."Clegg talks much about Woodward's ability to bring "added value".