The former international rugby union star, widely regarded as one of the greatest sports coaches of the modern era, has led the British and Irish Lions team as head coach on four separate occasions and recently took up the post of performance director at Bath.

The 63-year-old former PE teacher has now teamed up Youth Sport Trust to lead the bid to address key issues in school sport with a particular emphasis on the lack of qualified coaches in Olympic and Paralympic sports which could result in missed opportunities for young people inspired by London 2012.

Sir Ian will also focus on enhancing the quality of coaches working in school sport, prioritising the recruitment and training of more coaches in all sports and creating ways for young people to move more easily from leadership into coaching.

He told insidethegames: "This is really a very unique opportunity and I am very excited to have been asked by the Youth Sport Trust to join them as their national Coaching Ambassador.

"Good leadership from coaches is the catalyst behind any success story and the more coaches that can be developed at school level, the more that success there will be within school sport.

"You don’t necessarily have to be a retired sportsperson to be a coach, you can start from a young age and be all the better for it.

"What each coach brings to a team is very individual as is the chemistry between the coach and the team and it is a job where you learn as you go along.

"I have been a coach for over 20 years and I have been head coach on four British and Irish Lions tours and I am still learning the job.

"There are days as a coach when you have huge lows and you feel at rock bottom but when you have those great days when everything goes right, there is no feeling in the world like it and that is why I am so passionate about getting more people and particularly young people to experience that because it is just so rewarding.

"I hope that by working with the Youth Sport Trust, I can encourage more young people to take on coaching roles as we have such a strong opportunity to inspire children to participate in sport with the London 2012 Games taking place in two years time.

"If we can have top school sport coaches with a strong knowledge of Olympic and Paralympic sport in place by the time we get to 2012, all the children inspired by the Games will have a vehicle ready to take them to the next level after the Games and for me, that would be the one of the most powerful legacies of London 2012."



Sue Campbell, the chair of the Youth Sport Trust, added: "It is not top facilities or transport systems that get children passionate about sport, it is individuals such as coaches that inspire them and fill them with a lifelong burning desire to play sport.

"That is what I remember from my childhood and it was great individuals more than anything else who helped me on my pathway through sport when I was young.

"With the London 2012 Games around the corner, we have such an incredible opportunity to get children involved in sport and we cannot afford to miss it.

"Following the London 2012, there will be so many children who will want to take up the new sports that they have seen for the first time and we must have enough coaches in Olympic and Paralympics sports to cope with that demand or the inspiration from the Games will be lost.

"But we are so thrilled to have Sir Ian on board who is one of the exceptional coaching talents of this sporting era and I believe that his credentials to lead on this project are unrivalled.

"Sir Ian will be absolutely instrumental in helping us deliver a vital area of the Youth Sport Trust’s work to create a world-leading PE and sport system for all young people and with him in place, there is no greater role model to inspire people passionate about sport to take up coaching to help inspire others and reap the rewards from that."

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