Woodward proud of progress
Sunday, 3 December 2000 13:55Try as he might, there was no hiding the satisfaction of England manager Clive Woodward at the triumphant completion of the autumn international programme. The 25-17 victory over South Africa at Twickenham yesterday appears finally to have broken the Tri-Nations domination of the world game. With four successive victories over southern hemisphere opposition, including two on the trot against the once mighty Springboks, England have finally achieved their aim. The challenge may be far from over and their sequence of victories will only make their Six Nations rivals even more determined to cut the Red Rose down to size.
But as Woodward said as he basked in the afterglow of almost unprecedented success, "Things can only get better. It is going to take a very good team to beat us. One of the most pleasing aspects of all is that we won knowing we can still play a lot better. Apart from the blip against Scotland in April, we have move forward steadily since the World Cup. The clubs have been totally supportive of what we have done. They have released their players every Monday, which has allowed us to have five or six sessions together before we met up for the Tests. It gave us a start with the work we wanted to do and allowed us to prepare properly once the games came round."
New Springbok coach Harry Viljoen, like his Australian counterpart Rod Macqueen a fortnight before, pointed to the transitional phase his country is currently in, while acknowledging England's ascendency.
Filed by Pat Nugent
