Now I'd like to try my luck at rugby union, says Fletcher

Duncan Fletcher, the former England cricket coach, running the gamut of public opinion following some juicy revelations in his autobiography, has told The Independent that he wishes to resume his career as one of sport's more analytical thinkers – in rugby union.

Admitting that he enjoys watching rugby more than cricket, Fletcher says he has a number of ideas. "I'd like to be a rugby consultant," he says in an interview published today. "The big thing in rugby is changing direction. That's the key. If you can change direction, you've got a one-metre advantage over the opposition, and by the time they've woken up, you've stolen that metre. I find that fascinating."

Fletcher remains similarly fascinated by the technicalities of cricket. Whether he will get the chance to apply his theories, however, remains to be seen. By revealing that the then England captain Andrew Flintoff turned up at a morning net session in Australia last winter too drunk to take part, and by criticising other talismanic Englishmen, among them Sir Ian Botham, Geoff Boycott and Monty Panesar, Fletcher appears to have burnt his bridges, at least in English cricket. But he is not yet persona non grata in English rugby.