Rugby's PR genius demoted

Richard Prescott, the RFU's arrogant and inept communications manager, has been demoted.

It's the best public relations move by the RFU in years. Although Prescott regards himself as a PR genius (remember this quote from an earlier post: "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") his employers' patience has run out with him.

The RFU top brass have had to endure numerous PR disasters as well as complaints about Prescott from the chief rugby writers of national newspapers, radio and TV.

Do we need to list all the PR gaffes? Well, here goes...Danny Cipriani being dropped/ Andy Robinson's sacking/ rape allegations in New Zealand/ Brian Ashton's sacking/ recruitment of Martin Johnson/ club v country row.

All these episodes cast the RFU in a very bad light, largely because the RFU failed to get their point across to the media.

As one senior RFU source told Undercover Sport: "All Richard ever does is send out a shitty email, rather than speaking to journalists."

The final straw for the RFU was Ashton's exit, which saw the governing body get panned for its treatment of the Lancastrian.

The RFU has now, finally, decided to recruit a PR expert, leaving Prescott to deal solely with the England team.

He could still cause some considerable damage there. Good luck Martin Johnson.