England manager ignores sponsors

Clive Woodward used to wait until the end of a Six Nations campaign before infuriating the competition organisers; this year, he has peaked early by annoying them 12 days before the opening match.

The England manager's non-appearance at yesterday's official pre-championship gathering in Buckinghamshire – the Wales coach, Graham Henry, was also missing – left Allan Hosie, the chairman of the tournament committee, muttering about "discourtesy" while placating the title sponsors, Lloyds TSB, who found themselves presiding over the most doomed launch since the Titanic.

Woodward first crossed Hosie and company two years ago when, following a defeat in Scotland, his side mooched off to the dressing room instead of collecting the Six Nations trophy from the Princess Royal, leaving her twiddling her thumbs in the Murrayfield rain. On the face of it, his absence yesterday was another misjudgement.

While four of his peers – Eddie O'Sullivan of Ireland, Ian McGeechan of Scotland, Bernard Laporte of France and Brad Johnstone of Italy – managed to make it from Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris and Rome respectively, Woodward was 27 miles away in Bagshot, overseeing an England squad session. He could have walked to Stoke Poges in the time it took Johnstone to fly in from the Eternal City. "With your motorways as they are, maybe it was quicker for me after all," said Johnstone, ironically.

But Woodward, reluctant to interrupt a valuable day of preparation in advance of what promises to be a highly competitive tournament, never committed himself to attending the function; indeed, Roger Pickering, the Six Nations chief executive, did not request the presence of the six head coaches until last month, by which time the England session had been fixed. Henry was also running a squad session, although his was arranged some weeks after the launch invitations were issued.

"I hope this is a communication problem, rather than an attitude problem," Pickering said. "When we contacted the unions in December to ask if the coaches would be available, some responded quicker than others. We chased those who failed to respond, and then realised there were problems. We attempted to rectify the situation until close of business last Friday, without success. There is no contractual obligation for the coaches and captains to attend this function. Maybe there should be."

Those who hold the opinion that rugby's governing classes would have difficulty running a whelk stall were further confirmed in their view when the Rugby Football Union announced its willingness to "consider other options" relating to venue for the Powergen Cup semi-finals, currently scheduled to be played on a back-to-back basis at the Madejski Stadium in Reading on 9 March. The RFU took some serious flak following London Irish's victory over Gloucester in Sunday's quarter-final – unsurprisingly, given that the Exiles play their home games at the Madejski.

Rob Andrew, the Newcastle director of rugby, and Mark Evans, the Harlequins chief executive, made their feelings known on the subject, and the union responded by putting the issue on the agenda for today's meetings of the England Rugby Ltd board and the RFU competitions sub-committee. The draw for the semis will also be made today and the odds on an embarrassing volte-face by the union are getting shorter by the minute.

Now that Leeds are out of the competition, Headingley is a possible compromise: the Tykes have a home game with Bristol that weekend, but they play their home games on Sundays. The clubs may even press the union to forget about neutral venues and return to the time-honoured system of giving home advantage to the first and third teams out of the hat. However, the discussions will not take place until the draw has been made, so it is equally likely that the second and fourth teams will want to "go neutral" after all.

Will Greenwood, the Harlequins centre, and Dorian West, the Leicester hooker, sat out England training because of ankle and groin injuries respectively. France, meanwhile, are considering the consequences of Sunday's big domestic championship game between Toulouse and Stade Français, which cost them the Six Nations services of the full-back Clement Poitrenaud and the No 8 Patrick Tabacco.