Clive Woodward faces a showdown with the leading clubs tomorrow over his contentious training programme up to next year's World Cup which the England manager maintains must be implemented if his side are to have a chance of winning the tournament.
Woodward described England's training schedule as inadequate and he has asked for 20 national training days to be set aside for elite players next season, 18 more than the previous campaign. He wants the 20 Elite Player Schedule days to start at the beginning of next month, but the clubs have warned him that he will have to compromise.
The clubs, who have half the votes on the ERL board, are concerned about the implications for their own preparations: Woodward has planned a three-day squad session in the week of the Heineken Cup and Parker Pen Shield quarter-finals next January.
The issue should have been debated by the board of England Rugby Ltd more than two months ago but tempers have been allowed to cool after the clubs boycotted a meeting with the England management team last May in protest at what they felt was an attempt to railroad them.
Woodward was unavailable for comment last night but he warned last May: "If we have the training programme of the last 12 months we will not do well in the World Cup. It seems that those in charge of Premier Rugby are running amok and we are not moving forward."
The chief executive of Premier Rugby, Howard Thomas, countered yesterday: "The clubs all want to see England do well in the World Cup. It is a question of putting together a programme which suits everybody. We have always cooperated with Clive over the issue of player release and that will continue."
Woodward is also unhappy with the 32-game limit on players in a calendar year because it includes a ceiling of 10 England appearances. Several internationals are likely to hit that in the next 20 months with the World Cup sandwiched between two Six Nations campaigns.
"The World Cup will count as three matches," said Thomas. "The limit was agreed to protect players from burn-out and the whole point of it is that both the clubs and England have to look after the top performers."
