RFU's media mastermind revealed

I'll start the day with a challenge:

Trawl the newspaper archives; scan rugby message boards and blogs; listen to radio and TV... and try to find some positive comments about the Rugby Football Union.

It's not an easy task. Perhaps I shou1d even offer a prize to anyone able to manage it.

Even the coverage that the Football Association - that other much-maligned English sporting body - gets is positive when compared to its rugby counterpart.

The man responsible for the public-relations strategy of the RFU is communications manager Richard Prescott, who has held the job since 1997.

I spoke to a few rugby hacks to find out more about Prescott and they weren't very complimentary.

He seems to be one of those "media managers" who sees his job as obstructing the press rather than building relationships with them.

Shock horror, this leads to disgruntled rugby correspondents who don't want to go out of their way to give good coverage of the RFU.

Contrast that with what Max Clifford, the doyenne of PR, told the BBC last year.

"It's important to be as helpful as possible - you have to know the pressure that journalists are under," Clifford said.

"I've been in the industry for the last 40 years, working with people like The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali and Simon Cowell, and I do my best to play the game by them.

"You have to be open and approachable and build relationships."

Prescott also appears to like to see himself as one of the players, donning a tracksuit and rugby boots at England training sessions.

And have a look at the picture of him above, trying, unsuccessfully, to get in on the players' huddle at the end of the World Cup final.

He's the one with glasses peering over the considerable shoulders of Lee Mears and Phil Vickery.

This self-delusion is rather amusing, but it also goes some way to explain the high-handed defensiveness with which Mr Prescott is said to go about his job.

He misguidedly sees himself as part of the team, rather than someone on the periphery who acts as a facilitator for the press.

Yet, despite the terrible press the RFU receives on his watch, Prescott has the audacity to boast about the performance of his department.

I discovered an interview he had done with the Motor Industry Public Affairs Association earlier this year.

In it, he comes up with the following vignette:

"[The RFU has] a structure for media access that has even been used by the media as a template when dealing with other governing bodies."

Astonishing.

Perhaps the following line has more of a ring of truth about it:

"I have one of those bosses who supports almost everything we request and subsequently do - which is just brilliant."

Well, that certainly must be the case.