His decision to remove England’s senior team from the performance director’s remit was seen as an attempt to block the possible return of 2003 World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward.
Despite the RFU board, led by chairman Martyn Thomas, intervening to restore the original job specification, Woodward ruled himself out of the running for the role.
Former England captain Fran Cotton, who managed the British and Irish Lions during their series win over South Africa in 1997, has called for Steele to resign over the confusion., external
While Steele admitted the search has not been conducted as he would have liked, he insisted that the speculation and criticism around the performance director role is out of proportion.
“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,” he said.
“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.