Rob Andrew is a clever political animal with a remarkably thick skin. Sometimes it can be a conflicting marriage. The average rhino would have fetched its coat long ago and left the Rugby Football Union's offices in search of a quieter watering hole. But Andrew is still in situ as the RFU's elite rugby director, a pillar of rectitude amid crumbling ruins. Or, at least, that is how he would like people to regard him.
Others feel differently. Very differently. "For my money, I don't see what he has done in five years," said Austin Healey, now a sharp-eyed analyst for ESPN. "I have got no idea what he has done. And for him to say: 'Oh look at the Under-20s, they have gone on to great things in the World Cup' – that has got sod all to do with it …that is down to the clubs who have handled their players well. The RFU can't come out of this in its current state." Others are even ruder. "The only time he [Andrew] shows any balls is when he's fighting for his own position," muttered another disgruntled former international.
Martin Corry, the former England captain and long-time team-mate of Martin Johnsons, is more diplomatic but has his own deep concerns about what he sees as serious mismanagement at the top of the union. "It is not about people serving the RFU with hidden agendas," he said pointedly. "It's a time for strong leaders.
"There has been a distinct lack of leadership from the RFU, particularly since the World Cup. It could have been very different if people at the RFU had been prepared to stick their heads above the parapet. Instead they just stayed quiet and let Johno take all the shit.
"He won't say it because he's too much of a man but it forced his hand. He said: 'I'm going to have to do the right thing and resign.' That's how he felt. It's left England in limbo."
What a mess. If these were isolated complaints, Andrew could shrug them off easily enough. Corry's testimony, though, is particularly relevant, coming as it does from a recent England leader. The No8 also led his country during Andrew's early days at Twickenham. He believes Mike Tindall's £25,000 fine and ban from the senior squad was another symptom of weakness of the top – "It was a points-scoring exercise: the way it was done, the time it took to happen" – and cannot believe the depths to which the national team have been allowed to sink.
"Straight after the World Cup a strong leader would have said: 'We haven't got the structure in place to appoint a permanent England coach.' For that reason Martin Johnson and his coaching team should have been on rolling contracts until the right people were in place to review their jobs.
"At the moment there is no process, it just seems to be crisis management driven by the media's reaction. Big headlines about Johno? Right, he has to go. Big headlines about Tindall? Right, let's just whack a massive fine on him just to appease the media. These constant stories are just killing everything. Everyone associated with it has ended up with blood on their hands."
Corry, like so many people around the country, is also unconvinced the Twickenham incumbents are the right men to navigate English rugby – at all levels – back to calmer waters. "What I would like to see is a thorough overhaul of the RFU. The right process has to be found, at management level, to deal with elite rugby and the junior game.
"Then it comes down to choosing the right coaches and managers. At the moment it seems to be a case of: 'Well, he's a big name, what about him?' There's no sense of anyone thinking about a structure or the best people to fit into it. That's why I would have made sure Johno stayed at least until the end of the season so we could have dealt with the Six Nations before making long-term decisions. That to me would be the logical, systematic way to go about it.
"Who is now responsible for employing the next England coach? I don't believe we have the right people or the right processes in place. Everyone's talking about Nick Mallett, who picked Mauro Bergamasco at scrum-half for Italy against England. If Martin Johnson had picked Lewis Moody at scrum-half he'd have been hung straight away. When Mallett picks someone who can't pass at No9 it seems to be forgotten about."
So what will happen next? "The reality of my job is that I am not the England team manager. I am the elite rugby director and I run a big department," said Andrew, stubbornly defiant to the last.
The fact remains, though, that record levels of negativity have surfaced on his watch. Whether or not he is to blame for all of it, he has lost the confidence of too many stakeholders to survive much longer.
