Clive WOODWARD

 Clive Woodward is pictured above playing for England  against France at Twickenham in 1981.

"He not only had speed, but guile. But above everything else he was a beautifully balanced runner. He ran at opponents, then just when you thought he was sure to be downed, he produced a breathtaking sidestep and left his man for dead." So wrote Bill Beaumont, Clive Woodward's skipper during England's triumphant Grand Slam season of 1980, and a man who rated the flyer from Ely as the best centre he ever came across during his time in rugby. Indeed, in a four year career lasting between 1980 and 1984, Woodward marked himself out as a player of rare ability, a creative and elusive centre who had that uncommon knack of suppressing his own need for glory in the interests of the team and making others look good. This was perhaps his greatest attribute, seconded only by a willingness to stare into the mouth of the dragon and risk failure in the highest of high pressure situations. This "devil take the hindmost" attitude reaped rich rewards, as evidenced on many grainy television clips which show Clive running through a fixed mass of opposition players and coming out on the other side with the ball still in his hand, usually to lay off for a teammate to score a try.

The Leicester player got his first chance in the big time in 1980, when he came on as a replacement for Sale's Tony Bond in a 24-9 win over Ireland at Twickenham, a victory that set the wheels of the Grand Slam in motion. He retained his place for the next game against France in Paris, where his partnership with Nick Preston helped England win the match 17-13, their first triumph on French soil for 16 years. After going behind to a try scored by Jean-Pierre Rives, England hit back when stand off John Horton gained possession and looped a pass to Clive, missing out Preston in the process. Woodward then rode a tackle and layed off to Preston who had looped behind his centre partner on the scissors, before breaking a couple of weak tackles himself to score the try. Clive was also an integral part of the lead up work which led to two crucial drop goals by Horton either side of half time. An exhausted (but elated) Bill Beaumont told reporters after the match "Everybody said about how the French backs were going to rip us apart. Clive Woodward and Nick Preston in the middle were really great - and the little chap at stand off dropping those goals!". Next up was Wales at Twickenham, where Clive was paired with his Leicester teammate Paul Dodge, only 21 but already into his third season of international rugby. The partnership proved to be highly effective and lasted for a further three years and 14 matches before being curtailed due to Woodward breaking his leg in 1983, a fate that would also befall Dodge later in the year. England rode their luck during the match and were outscored by two tries to nil, but the Gods of Rugby appeared to be wearing white shirts that day and granted the home side an injury time penalty to make the game 9-8. It could be said that the winning score was "Made In Leicester", for it was set up by the determined centre play of Woodward and Dodge, before Dusty Hare delivered the coup de grace with his trusty right boot. With three wins out of three, one might have expected England to have gone into the final game with an uncrushable feeling of confidence.

However, Bill Beaumont would later recall that his side were "playing scared" given their poor performances under pressure in previous seasons and the fact that they had never won anything. Clive Woodward's approach to the match was to try and blot out that fear of failure and take the game to the opposition rather than adopting the safe option of hiding in the midfield somewhere. It was this sense of adventure that won the game for England, for Clive was responsible for setting up two tries in the first half to break the back of Scottish resistance and help create an unassailable 16-3 half time lead. The first try came about when Maurice Colclough won a lineout which Steve Smith fed to Horton. Horton in turn passed to Clive who dummied to the outside, stepped back in and then fed winger John Carleton who scored with ease. Number two also resulted from England's dominance in the line out. Peter Wheeler threw to the back of the lineout where the incomparable Tony Neary produced a salmon like leap to tap down to Steve Smith. Smith found Woodward who dummied a drop goal attempt with his left foot, eluded numerous tackles and layed off to Mike Slemen who dotted down in the far left corner. England scored three more tries, and despite a brave second half revival by the Scots, hung on to win the match and the Grand Slam. After Clive's sensational debut onto the international scene, British Lions honours duly followed and he was selected for the series against South Africa in the summer of 1980. The series was lost, but Woodward earned many admirers for his performances on tour. He played in two of the four tests, but missed out on the Lions deserved 17-13 victory in the fourth in Pretoria. (Jon Collins)

Commenting in Miles Harrison's book "Grand Slam", Clive Woodward stated that: "In any Five Nations Championship, the first game is vital. If you lose, draw or don't play well enough, then the season can go flat." Indeed, despite the fact that England still had a pretty powerful line up in 1981, the season certainly did go flat thanks to a loss to Wales on the opening day of the tournament. England led for much of the game to set up their first shot at victory in Cardiff since 1963, but it all came undone when Clive was tricked into going offside by opposition scrum half Brynmor Williams with only seconds remaining. England were penalised and Bridgend stalwart Steve Fenwick sent over the resulting spot kick to make it 21-19. Clive later described the incident as "the worst moment of my career", but Dusty Hare probably felt just as bad for he was unable to repeat his 1980 party piece and missed an injury time penalty that would have snatched the victory back again. An inconsolable Clive hung on to a photograph of himself taken in his moment of despair and used it for motivational purposes in later years, saying: "If I ever need cheering up, I still look at this photograph - with the caption 'Things can only get better!' ".

After committing such a comprehensive howler in the Welsh game, one could have forgiven Clive for disappearing into his shell for the rest of the season, playing sensible rugby and content just to not make any more mistakes. On the contrary, Woodward became even more positive after the setback, culminating in his astonishing debut try against Scotland at Twickenham. Presumably Clive figured that, since he had successfully made fools of the Scots a year before at Murrayfield, why should he not do the same thing again? Except this time it would be him crossing the try line, and not Slemen or Carleton. Miles Harrison would later write of his effort: "Of the six tries scored, none was better than England's first when Woodward gracefully swerved and arched his way past a mesmerised Scottish defence, beating half a dozen attempted tackles. It was a masterclass in sidestepping from a player prepared to experiment and chance his arm." The Grand Slam eventually went to France, probably deservedly, but England were able to resurrect something from the season by winning two from two. Always a superb exponent of the shortened version of the game, Clive also had the honour of leading the Barbarians to victory in the 1981 Hong Kong Sevens, the first team from the northern hemisphere to achieve this. The Barbarians tilt at the title was the brain child of the maverick number 8 Andy Ripley, a former international whose own England career had been snuffed out in 1976 and someone who one felt was always more at home wearing black and white hoops. Later in the year England then embarked on their first official tour to Argentina, a country where France, New Zealand and Australia had all been made to struggle in recent seasons. Playing against a powerful Puma pack, the sharpshooting Hugo Porta and vociferous home support, England somehow managed to get out of Buenos Aires with the test series won 1-0, with one match drawn. It was during this series that Clive scored his second and third tries for England. (Jon Collins)

Due to age and retirements, the 1982 season was probably England's last chance to follow up their 1980 Grand Slam achievement with the players they had available. The year started promisingly enough with a 15-11 victory over a talented, if coltish Wallaby side at Twickenham in what was later dubbed "Erica Roe's Test". Unfortunately, England could only draw 9-9 with Scotland on the opening day of the tournament and soon after received a stunning piece of news when Bill Beaumont announced his retirement due to a serious head injury. Steve Smith took over the captaincy for the next game against Ireland, but England were perhaps still reeling from Beaumont's departure and lost 16-15. However, in the next match against France in Paris England played like men possessed to win the game 27-15, one of the national side's best performances of the 1980s. The game featured Woodward's fourth and final try, and it was an effort that the French backs would have been jealous of. It all came about when the French chipped a ball beyond England's goalline which was covered by winger John Carleton. Carleton gave the ball to Mike Slemen who, rather than hoofing the ball downfield, took a tapped drop out and found Clive. Woodward chipped ahead and then played football with his own grubber kick for virtually the entire length of the field before beating one last French defender to score under the posts.

The 1983 season was curtailed by injury and he only played in one Five Nations match, but Clive did get to play in England's 15-9 victory over New Zealand later in the year, their first triumph over the All Blacks since 1973. His last game came in a 24-15 defeat by Wales at end of the 1984 Championship when he was still only twenty-eight, a victim of selectorial whim. In total, he scored only four tries for his country, scant reward for a player of such flair and creativity. Those four tries do not tell the whole story of course, because for every time he touched down, he created innumerable opportunities for others. And by way of further consolation, the tries he did score rank amongst the best ever. Then, just like Andy Ripley before him, Clive did not allow the actions of a mean minded selection committee to end his lust for adventure. Indeed, Woodward went from strength to strength in the post 1984 years, enjoying a successful playing and coaching career in Australia before setting out to conquer the business world. It was only a matter of time before he came back to rugby and he coached Bath through a transitional spell in the 1990s. In 1997 Clive was then given the task of taking England into the 21st century, and despite numerous setbacks, gradually turned them into a force to be reckoned with in world rugby. The climax of that was England's World Cup victory in 2003. (Jon Collins)