{"id":379193,"date":"2025-08-28T02:30:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/379193\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T02:30:25","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T02:30:25","slug":"messed-around-ex-england-coach-recalls-rfu-expenses-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/379193\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Messed around\u2019 ex-England coach recalls RFU expenses row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England head coach Dick Best has recalled the robust conversation he had with the RFU treasurer following the 1992 Grand Slam win over Wales.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Best, who won 13 of his 17 England matches between 1992 and 1994, took charge of his national side following the 1991 Rugby World Cup final loss to Australia<\/a>. His coaching was an instant hit as he led them to success in a Five Nations title decider some months later.<\/p>\n

However, a phone call that happened some days after the English had completed what was their second successive Grand Slam triumph proved confrontational, and Best, who turns 71 next month, has now revisited what unfolded.<\/p>\n

Appearing on The Business End with Liam Mooney and Justin Fitzpatrick<\/a>, two players he went on to coach at London Irish, he was asked about his firebrand style.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some serious run-ins\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou were remarkably honest as a leader, sometimes outspoken, which is fine,\u201d began Mooney. \u201cI respect and value that, but do you ever look back and perhaps that held you back sometimes with journalism or when you are dealing with a board, perhaps at London Irish<\/a>. How do you feel about that?\u201d<\/p>\n

Best didn\u2019t swerve the query, and he was soon retelling one aggravating incident from his spell as the England<\/a> boss. \u201cTalking straight in the old days was something you could do to a certain extent,\u201d he said. \u201cYou could talk straight, and you could get away with it. Now it\u2019s called being PC, and you have to be very careful about what you say these days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had some serious run-ins. I mean, when I worked with England, for instance, we had a Grand Slam game, and my wife said, \u2018Look, I haven\u2019t been to a game this season. I\u2019d really like to come to watch England play and I\u2019d like to come with you afterwards to the dinner and the reception\u2019. My wife wanted to feel a part of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Yeah, but what about the kids?\u2019 She said, \u2018I\u2019ll get a babysitter, I can get a babysitter, and we\u2019ll stay over at the Hilton Hotel, and we\u2019ll come back on Sunday and I\u2019ll get someone to stay overnight\u2019. I said, \u2018Okay, how much will it cost?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so we did that, and my wife really enjoyed it \u2013 to be honest, she deserved it as much as I did for being involved with the team. We won a Grand Slam, there were record sales of t-shirts, all the memorabilia and stuff like that, and I sent my expenses to the treasurer of the RFU at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cHe rang me up at home one evening and said, \u2018I have received your expenses. What the hell do you think you\u2019re playing at?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018What do you mean?\u2019 He said, \u2018This babysitter nonsense, \u00a330\u2019. I said, \u2018Yeah, we don\u2019t have any parents and we don\u2019t have anyone we can trust apart from the babysitter, and it cost \u00a330\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Well, I\u2019m not paying it\u2019. I said, \u2018Okay, you have grossed X million on the game on Saturday, we are all amateur players and coaches apart from the odd expense here and there, and if you don\u2019t pay me that expense, you will be reading about it in The Sun on Monday or Tuesday morning, and your name will be mentioned. So what would you like to do about that?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a long pregnant pause down the end of the phone. He said, \u2018I\u2019ll pay on this occasion, but don\u2019t do it again without asking me first\u2019. I thought, here we go, you\u2019re a last-word freak. I said, \u2018Okay, fine, whatever\u2019. Put the phone down on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought I shouldn\u2019t have had to threaten him like that with the media. He should have had more sense, understanding and more tact to come on board. I just thought, \u2018Why are you like that, Dick? Why have you called people out like that?\u2019<\/p>\n

Louis Rees-Zammit had the \u2018ability\u2019 to play NFL but not the \u2018mentality\u2019 according to ex-England star<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI just thought I\u2019m not going to be messed around by people like that who are small people within the game that control money. Yes, I understand we all need controls in place, otherwise it is pandemonium and we go bust.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut be realistic, we have just made \u00a35million on the England game. We\u2019ve just grossed \u00a32million on merchandise alone on Grand Slam t-shirts. Don\u2019t tell me you\u2019re not paying \u00a330 for a babysitter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings like that upset and annoy me. I have kept it fairly quiet for a long, long time, that type of thing, but you come across these people sometimes in the sport that are there for the wrong reasons, for their own personal fulfilment and enjoyment and they are not that bothered by the team or what we are trying to achieve as a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does he have any regrets now about his robust approach? \u201cThere have been times when I have done things that I have regretted and I have said things sometimes that I have regretted and I have gone back and sometimes I have apologised for doing things.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t need to be like that. Be kind is the expression they use now, try to be kind to people, and that is what I have learned after a long time in sport, just be kind. You\u2019re not going to get anywhere by ruffling people\u2019s feathers. So yes, I do regret some of the things I said, but I have said more sense than I have wrong things.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong>: Ex-England and Lions coach pips Warren Gatland to land job at Japan Rugby League One outfit<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England head coach Dick Best has recalled the robust conversation he had with the RFU treasurer following…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379194,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4102],"tags":[132131,393,225,90462,12,4151,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-379193","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-dick-best","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-home-page","11":"tag-internationals","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-rugby","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115104043836412975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379193"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379193\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}