Clive Woodward Quotations

Winning the World Cup was the worst thing that ever happened to the England team.

You don't get lucky in sport.

Captain and coach must be seen to be banging the same drum.

'Concentrate on measuring performance and winning will take care of itself'. That is a brilliant excuse for coming second...

Our success has not been a continual series of victories. We have had a number of devastating setbacks; how these are handled is the making of a great team... winning does not happen in straight lines.

We set out to be the No. 1 team in the world and the only time you can say that is when you have the World Cup sitting here with you, ... I hope it kicks on to a really golden era for English rugby.

Simon is a class player and I feel for him but he has the character to come back from this and we wish him well in his recovery,

One of the major successes of the tournament so far has been the refereeing, because I can't recall many people talking about it. There have been very few bad incidents, hardly any citing offenses and (Watson's) looking forward to tomorrow's game and so are we.

If we're brutally honest, this is the game we look forward to most, ... a little more spice following our meeting in the World Cup semifinal.

We've experienced these types of games in the last few years and the players always responded well.

We take our normal precautions which are professional and thorough,

We made the change for the France game but playing Australia it's right to go back to Tindall. He is a key part of our team and has been for a long time.

I saw the same tapes that the citing commission would have seen and to me there was plenty of evidence,

Paul is the best player and I am mindful we've had no training time at all since the World Cup. To throw in Ollie Barkley or Alex King with no preparation would be a big call, especially playing away from home.

My resignation has been accepted. I was happy to stay for the tests in the autumn but it was agreed that it would make for a smoother transition of responsibility if I withdrew my position with immediate effect,

Martin and I spoke earlier this month about his decision. I made it clear during the Rugby World Cup that I would have liked him to captain England in our defense of the Grand Slam, but I fully support his decision.

I was going nuts. We kept putting ourselves in trouble, making error after error. But who cares what I thought? We have won the World Cup.

We have a huge amount of respect for this team, even more so after they just demolished the All Blacks last week, and that wasn't even a close game.

We made errors, we made mistakes and we've got to fix it very, very quickly and I think this sends the right message to the whole squad.

We did not play as well as we could or should have last night, but I am in no doubt we can beat New Zealand. Gareth's leadership will be central to meeting that challenge.

It would be good to have Wilkinson there if he's at his best,

I've announced a strong team with over 300 caps between them,

After last night's match, we are going to need big characters out there who can dig deep and show real fight and courage. Gareth is such a character,

After matches you want people to go straight in front of the cameras and the media and it's a highly-charged atmosphere so you have to be careful.

As it turns out he got his chance and did fantastically well against Wales,

This is an outstanding team for the tour and will be a tremendous opportunity for some other players to step up to the mark,

A lot of this game is about the attitude shown by players, and the attitude this week has been immense. You need a real mind set when you're playing the French in their own back yard. The guys are really looking forward to it.

It's a happy changing room but we came here to win, not to come second,

It's been a good day, no more than that. We're really looking forward to this week and playing in the final next weekend.

It's critical he gets this experience but we're giving him full support with Catt and Tindall and Dawson at hand. It will be a big night for him and his first real big test,

I'm delighted that Steve Hansen is picking a very good Wales team. Man for man they are a very strong side and I fully expect that our players will have a very tough test on Saturday.

I'm a Chelsea fan. My whole background is in football,

I only heard last night that it (a citing) might happen and it was confirmed this morning,

I had a long and positive chat with Jason this morning when he told me of his decision,

If you look at the way we've played in the last 24 months I think we have played with a lot of width, ... But you don't win the World Cup with width.

In the cold light of day we need to see how we played technically and tactically, this is going to be the make or break of this tour,

In my opinion it is a pretty horrendous tackle and it has put him out for a long time.

Clearly things were not right last Saturday night and it was time to shake things up,

He's an example to all the squad on and off the field and, like me, he's really looking forward to Saturday.

George is clearly in charge of the first team and my role is the whole training ground environment. I've got ambitions in management but that is at least two or three years away. I feel I am more than qualified to help individual players, not just the first team.

All his caps for England have been earned on merit. On behalf of the England team I'd like to wish him every success in the future.