Martin Johnson won some epic battles during a magnificent career as England and Leicester captain, but his toughest opponent looms large - the Rugby Football Union.
The RFU management board are set to confirm Johnson's appointment as England team manager tomorrow morning.
Their decision will then be relayed to the outside world - not that we don't know it already - and then the real fun and games will kick off.
Johnson's lack of managerial experience will be a concern to those who believe RFU elite rugby director Rob Andrew's recommended choice is a knee-jerk reaction to the management board's hawkish elements that have demanded change.
I take the view that Johnson's natural leadership skills and preference to put his head above the parapet - rather than duck below it - will serve him well for this demanding role.
He will be paid handsomely. Again, fair enough, he could require the patience of a saint to deal with Twickenham's suited brigade.
It has become so easy to criticise some of these people boredom now almost sets in.
But England have been allowed to stagnate since they were crowned world champions in 2003. Complacency? Bucketloads of the stuff.
Sir Clive Woodward, a master at putting the right people in the right jobs and then running his empire like the slick chief executive he was, walked away in 2004.
Woodward grew disillusioned about what he could see ahead - the interminable battles with his bosses, their likely intransigence and, perhaps worst of all, an ignorance of what England required to keep them at the top.
If you stand still, people overtake you. When England won the 2003 World Cup, they should have immediately started planning to defend it four years later - not bask interminably in the glory of that stunning triumph.
Woodward's successor Andy Robinson came and went, while who can confidently predict current head coach Brian Ashton will still be around by the time England launch their autumn Test programme at Twickenham on November 8?
The whole "Team England" ethos Woodward created has been downgraded during the past four and a half years, a painful erosion of personnel - and maybe even principles - that helped England conquer the world.
While it won't happen overnight, those qualities must return and Johnson must be the individual who leads and inspires.
As a player, Johnson had a fearless, peerless approach to his job. Team-mates for club and country would have run bare-footed across hot coals if he demanded it.
This time, Johnson's white shirt will be covered by a pin-stripe suit, rather than bloodied mementoes of battle-scarred victories on playing fields from Murrayfield to Melbourne and Paris to Pretoria.
Once again though, he must roll up his sleeves and prepare to win the fight.
The RFU have hardly covered themselves in glory these past few weeks, especially with the shameful treatment of Ashton, and part of me wonders why on earth Johnson would want to work with these people?
They scarcely deserve an individual of Johnson's standing, but this is a challenge akin to the type he never shirked on a rugby pitch, and maybe that is the lure of it.
Johnson will need to establish the house rules from day one. In other words, the job is done his way, or not at all.
He had an ability to mentally and physically destroy opposition players.
If he takes those qualities with him into Twickenham's corridors of power, then what price the suits are already shaking?
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