Sir Clive Woodward takes charge of his first team this week since he left rugby eight years ago. Not that he is exactly coming in from the cold – more like going into it.

It is some distance from the unseemly scrum Twickenham to the smooth slopes of the Austrian Alps, where he is looking forward to a winter of content, breathing some clean mountain air as Chef de Mission of a squad of 24 young GB hopefuls at the inaugural Youth Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, which start this weekend.

The architect of a World Cup victory in 2003 that England lamentably failed to emulate last year, he has steadfastly declined to resume that role amid intense pressure about a return of the messiah. Instead he has been frostbitten, so to speak, by the Olympic bug in his new capacity as the British Olympic Association's (BOA) director of elite performance.

While admitting his regret that rugby ("a sport that is in my bones") is currently held in such opprobrium, the off-field cavorting in New Zealand compounded by Danny Care's recent peccadillo, Woodward seems happy to have settled into a new comfort zone.

The slopes are not an unfamiliar terrain.  He is an experienced skier and his eldest son, Joe is a qualified ski instructor. "I am passionate about winter sports and that's why I have been chosen to be in charge of the team," he tells me. "It's very challenging because traditionally we are not a winter sports nation, although we have won gold medals in indoor events like skating and curling, but we have some talented young athletes now who have based themselves abroad. This is why the Youth Games are important. I have spoken to these kids and the excitement is huge. It could be the trigger to get winter sports going a bit here."


The squad includes 16-year-old freestyle skier Katie Summerhayes (pictured) in the ski halfpipe, a new event which will make its debut in the full 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, and Thomas Muirhead, younger brother of Eve, the four-time junior world and current senior European champion, in the mixed curling team. Bobsleigher Jazmin Sawyers has previously represented Britain at athletics while cross country skier Scott Dixon is the son of six-time Olympic biathlete Mike Dixon.

Two ice-hockey players, Lewis Hook and Katharine Gale, will participate in a unique individual event to test skills at the game.

Says Woodward: "By winning Olympic gold in Vancouver, Amy Williams demonstrated what can be achieved with dedication, determination and a great support system. Our priority at the British Olympic Association has been to ensure we have left no stone unturned in our preparations to allow every Team GB athlete to fulfil their potential and produce their personal best in Innsbruck.

"Critically, the experience the young athletes will gain in Innsbruck goes well beyond the sporting competition. They will have a very special opportunity to experience the Olympic atmosphere of living in an athletes' village, competing in a multisport environment and participating in the culture and education."

Intriguingly, at a time when indiscipline is rife in sport, from the boorishness of the oval-ball oiks to the waywardness of Wayne Rooney and a host of football's finest, he is determined that Britain's Olympians, new and old, will be setting examples in what is the nation's most momentous sporting year.


Like their counterparts in the forthcoming Summer Games in London, where Woodward will then be deputy Chef de Mission, as he was in Beijing, the youngsters in Innsbruck, all aged 14-17, will be subject to a 15-point code of behaviour that includes refraining from swearing in public, obeying Team GB dress regulations, keeping noise to a minimum in the Games Village at night and keeping bedrooms neat and tidy.

The disciplinary framework has been drawn up by Woodward in consultation with Olympic team leaders and includes stipulations about hygiene, timekeeping, and politeness to other competitors. Any partying after their event must be well away from the village and mobile phones have to be switched off at night.

Had Martin Johnson imposed such strictures they probably would have been ignored anyway, though one suspects not so under the Woodward regime, when surely the miscreants would have been on dispatch to the nearest airport for the flight home.

So I ask him if he would have done things differently had he been the boss in New Zealand. "Yes, I like to think I would," he replies. "But it's easy to view things from the stands.  I have never had to experience the sort of things that went on there in my years in charge.  We were very big on discipline, how we operated both on and off the field. It's not just the obvious areas of drinking and partying, it's all sorts of things.

"I would have sat down with them as individuals and then as a team, looked them straight in the eye and said 'How do you want to be remembered?' Because I know how I want to be remembered and that's for being on the back pages rather than the front pages.

"I can think of nothing worse than being remembered for doing something inappropriate that would affect the performance of a teammate or another athlete.  It will be with you for the rest of your life.  If you want to be remembered as a great athlete, it's not because of what you do yourself but for what you do that affects others.

"With the Olympic sports now, we are going to make sure that nothing like this happens. We want to be known for what occurs in the arena, not out of it."

"I can honestly say that in my time with the England team, we had a few moments – the Dallaglio situation (when he was exposed for taking social drugs), these things can happen in a team environment when you are working with a bunch of guys for seven or eight years.  But you are with them all the time and can deal with it. The Olympics are not like that, you have 26 team leaders and they have to bring their athletes into it.  You have 550 athletes, 450 coaches and one person could cause so many issues."


He says he had no contact with Johnson (pictured), whom he had said would be "mad" to take charge of England without top level coaching experience, before or during the campaign, other than a couple of good luck messages.  "Jonno did it his own way, as every coach does.  I am not saying the way I did it was right or wrong, but it would have been different.  Ok, I was successful but it would be wrong to say that was the blueprint. But you are judged on results off the pitch as well as on and you have to get that right. Sadly Martin didn't, and clearly became badly unstuck".

While he maintains "I am a rugby man and always will be" he has clearly committed to the cause of 2012. "One of the reasons I enjoy doing this job is that I was extremely lucky in coaching England's rugby team for seven years and worked with what I call gold medal league players like Lawrence Dallaglio, Jonny Wilkinson and Martin Johnson. Had they been Olympians, they would have won gold medals.  And then when you meet their equivalent, the Chris Hoys, the Rebecca Adlingtons and the Vicky Pendletons, they are no different.  That's what I find so fascinating.  These are guys who sacrifice everything, put everything into it.  With people who become champions in sport, whether its football, rugby or the Olympics, there is a common theme, they are incredibly driven.  They have the same DNA. There is nothing that surprises me about why they are winners.  Not only have they got great talent, they take it to a whole new level with the way they operate."

When we met on his 56th birthday I wondered what he might be doing on his 57th. Will he still be in the Olympic rings four years hence in Rio, when rugby makes its debut in a sevens event?


Or will the tug-of-war with Twickers prove irresistible?

His response is enigmatic. "I am absolutely delighted that rugby will now be an Olympic sport in Rio. It will be such a big thing and take the game to a whole new level.  The way the Olympics work, you get funding and all sorts of back up and you will see nations like China, Russia and the United States taking a whole new direction in their approach to the game. It is a great day for rugby.

"But the things that have been coming up now and again (about a return to rugby) have not been led by me. I am enjoying this job and looking forward to the next Olympics, both in Sochi for the Winter Games and then in Rio once London is done and dusted. But nothing is set in stone. 2012 will be a time to re-evaluate.

"I am just thrilled to be involved in something which is going to be colossal. The nation hasn't really realised yet what is going to hit it, just how big this is all going to be. Sport will go off the wall. If it all works out successfully as we believe, I am sure there will be an immense benefit in terms of legacy and I'll be proud to have been part of it.

"We have our pace-making sports, cycling, swimming, rowing and sailing, and track and field have come really good too. We have four genuine chances of gold medals which we didn't have four years ago.  But I hope there will be some sports which surprise us like women's football and hockey and sports like taekwondo. Some of these sports, and I would include women's boxing, can really captivate the nation. Other sports like handball, volleyball and basketball, well, the British public know they are not going to win medals but they will get behind them because they know they will compete.

In the meantime there are fresh mountains to climb, kids to be motivated. "I have been very lucky in that I have never planned my career, things have just happened. As I say, I enjoy working for the BOA and I am totally committed to 2012. These Winter Games and the Summer Olympics are something I am really keen to do. After 2012, well, my career will go whichever way it wants to go."

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.