Clive Woodward Says Celtic Countries Are Overly Obsessed With The Lions

Sir Clive Woodward says the Lions means much less to him as an Englishman than it does to the Irish, Welsh and Scottish rugby communities.

Woodward famously guided England to Rugby World Cup glory in 2003, before infamously leading the Lions to an absolute thrashing at the hands of New Zealand just two years later in 2005.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Woodward claims he wasn’t all that bothered about coaching the Lions.

The Lions, to me, wasn’t the top of my playing career, wasn’t the top of my coaching career.
Playing for England was. Winning a World Cup was. Becoming the best team in the world, that was what it was all about.
The Lions was something I liked, I could understand why it’s important to British and Irish rugby. But I sometimes think the Celtic countries put too much stall on it. It’s almost the top of their tree, where I don’t think it is because it is such a strange thing when you look at it logically.
You play away from home, you give all the advantage away, you’ve got a scratch team.

Interesting comments from the former England boss.

[BBC]

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