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Players/Officials: John Steele

Teams: England

Chief executive John Steele has come out fighting over his future at the Rugby Football Union after severe criticism for the chaotic search for a new elite performance director.

Steele has come under pressure for his handling of the appointment process, which has seen the remit of the role twice changed in recent months. A number of high profile have ruled themselves out of the running, including World Cup winning head coach Sir Clive Woodward, who will continue in his current position at the British Olympic Association.

The search has been undermined by disagreements between Steele and the RFU board over the job specification - in particular whether England manager Martin Johnson would report to the new performance director - which has led to delays in the interviewing and appointment process.

However Steele has received the backing of the RFU board, led by chairman Martyn Thomas, and is determined to continue in his role despite a traumatic few months.

"People who know me will tell you, when I set my mind to do something, as I have here, I will see it through," Steele told BBC Sport. "When the hard times come we must not be derailed or distracted."

"I think anyone involved has been disappointed by the last few weeks, it is not what we want from our sport, there are no winners here, but it has happened and we need to make sure we understand why it has happened.

"It is not a high-profile rugby supremo type role, it never has been," he added of the performance director role. "It is a tiny part of the role, the main part of this role is about the women's teams, the junior teams, the sevens. It is all about what is happening behind the scenes, below the senior England team.

"There has been a lot of noise around this, a lot of it hasn't been objective and my job has been to put that aside and make sure the progress is right and to make sure we get the right person for the right job long-term."

The RFU have struggled to fill the performance following the appointments of Rob Andrew as director of rugby operations and Steve Grainger as development director in an overhaul of the management structure.

Steele was criticised for removing responsibility for the the England senior team from the performance director's remit - a change which was seen as putting off Woodward and later reversed in an emergency meeting of the RFU board.

Former RFU chairman Fran Cotton was a particularly vociferous opponent of Steele, claiming his removal was the only solution and adding: "If it's a choice between John Steele as chief executive or Clive Woodward as performance director, it's a no-brainer."

"Yes, there has been this bump in the road but it doesn't mean that what we put in place in terms of our plans for the future isn't still as valid as it was six months ago," Steele told the Telegraph. "In fact, that last six months have shown me even more the need for change. We need to work differently and I have been brought in to drive that change, and that is exactly what I will do."