TWICKENHAM supremo Francis Baron has rejected calls from Clive Woodward to step aside as Rugby Football Union chief executive.

Woodward fired a major broadside at Baron and RFU elite rugby director Rob Andrew, blaming them for the current state of English rugby which includes the national team winning just one of their last nine Test matches.

But Baron was in no mood for a verbal scrap, preferring instead to recall "five great years" working with Woodward, which included England's 2003 World Cup triumph.

Baron said: "I had five great years working in partnership with Clive.

"I think it's fair to say Clive and I probably formed one of the most successful partnerships in rugby anywhere in the world.

"I have great memories of that, and I am not going to say anything now which seems to be tit for tat.

"The partnership worked brilliantly, and I was disappointed when he stepped down in 2004, but he has gone his separate way and he has been out of the game for two years.

"The game is a very different game now, the issues are very different now than they were when Clive was in post, and I was disappointed to read what he had to say.

"He is perfectly entitled to express his opinion. I am not going to say anything negative about Clive."