'I'll Return to Rugby,' Says Woodward

Sir Clive Woodward, England's Rugby World Cup-winning coach until his surprise resignation last September, will be back looking for an international rugby post after his two-year sabbatical in football - but it will not be at Twickenham.

'Deep down I think I'll come back to rugby at some stage,' Woodward, who is currently preparing the British and Irish Lions for their forthcoming tour of New Zealand, has told The Observer . But he made it clear that after his stint in football there will be little appeal in club rugby - and that the possibility of working with England again in present circumstances is so remote that: 'It hasn't even occurred to me to think about it.'

Woodward, 49, resigned abruptly from his post 10 months after England's dramatic last-minute World Cup victory against Australia in 2003. He blamed the divorce with the Rugby Football Union on irreconcilable differences with a few top officials who blocked his plans to secure greater control over the players as the basis for England's bid to repeat the triumph in 2007. Woodward startled observers by declaring that, having really preferred football all along, he was planning to join Southampton next season, initially as coach to the youth team. However, he now insists that this is a temporary rather than permanent break from rugby.

'I wasn't turning my back on rugby union, just the opposite,' he said. 'I'd just stepped down from England, so there's no way I'd have felt comfortable taking another international team back to Twickenham.'

But the medium term is another matter. 'A lot of people have been putting two and two together, but really this is just an opportunity after the Lions to work with other sports for two years under no pressure, where I can make an impact - and the experience will make me a better rugby union coach,' he said. After that, 'there are many wonderful jobs in world rugby' to look forward to. Woodward once spent five years playing and working in Australia, an experience he has always counted as one of the most rewarding and formative of his career.

First, however, is the small matter of the Lions. The consensus among observers is that winning in New Zealand will be a massive task - the All Blacks are probably the best team in the world and, of 11 past tours, the Lions have won just one, back in 1971.

But if the Lions do make a good fist of the series, Woodward can take his break secure in the knowledge that every international team will be after his services when he returns - provided it can afford him.