Sir Clive Woodward© Photo by Tom Dulat - iRB/iRB via Getty Images

Sir Clive Woodward was never one to rest on his laurels and self doubt is something he does not even know the meaning of, so it should come as no surprise that he has thrown his hat in the ring as a contender to succeed Philippe Saint-Andre as French coach after the World Cup.

I believe he still hoped England would come to their senses and reappoint him after a caretaker period under Stuart Lancaster but the announcement that the present England coach had been awarded a long-term contract through to the end of the World Cup in 2019 scuppered that, so it was time for a rethink.

The fact that he has not coached since the disastrous 2005 Lions Tour is not a problem in his eyes. He has erased that from the memory bank - or perhaps that failure is what is driving him to prove himself all over again - and obviously believes he can pick-up where he left off, a big ask after a gap of 10 years.

Since then, he has had a spell at Southampton Football Club as performance director and was director of elite performance for the British Olympic Association, but ruffled quite a few feathers when he tried to tell very successful coaches how to run their programmes when they obviously had far more specialist knowledge of the sports involved.

Recently, he has been a slightly grumpy and very critical pundit and I, for one, have always felt it was just a stop-gap until another coaching opportunity presented itself. When France announced Saint-Andre would be standing down after the World Cup, he could not resist and sources within the French camp have confirmed it was Woodward who contacted them, not the other way around - he is not short of self belief.

So what does he have to offer? Not very much when it comes to hands-on coaching, but that was never his forte. His strength was always his management skills. In his time in charge of England he was much more a director of rugby rather than a head coach. He was a great planner and organiser and very demanding when it came to resources, bringing in specialist coaches to concentrate on specific areas - forwards, backs, defence, attack, kicking and fitness. Instead of just coach and assistant coach, he developed the concept of a support team, the like of which had never been seen before.

Facilities were equally important in his grand plan. Elite athletes deserved the best as far has he was concerned so he masterminded the move to Pennyhill Park with its sumptuous accommodation and the space to create top class training pitches.

Perhaps his greatest strength was persuading his bosses at the RFU that all this was absolutely essential and getting the funding to make his dream a reality. The cost of running the national team rocketed but it was all worthwhile - England won the 2003 World Cup.

How much of that was down to Woodward's coaching and how much relied on a remarkable group of players coming together at just the right time will always be up for debate, but he undoubtedly did a fine job of maximising their potential - something that had never happened in English rugby before. However, there has always been a touch of the control freak, even the megalomaniac, about him and despite that success his demands when it came to his contract renewal after the World Cup led to the parting of the ways.

The England set-up was pretty chaotic pre-Woodward and very organised when he left which is why he could be just what France require at the moment. They are in a complete mess and they need somebody who can sort that out much more than they need a great coach.

They have a new state of the art training facility at Marcoussis but it is not matched by the rest of the French structure. The first thing Woodward would have to tackle is the politics between the Top 14 and the FFR because the clubs are almost a law unto themselves and agreeing release periods to implement his meticulous planning might be a huge stumbling block.

Veteran Toulouse coach Guy Noves is still favourite for the post by all accounts but the dream ticket for France might be to create a new Director of Rugby role to handle all of the organisation and politics, leaving him to concentrate purely on coaching. Whether a foreigner is capable of handling that is debateable. On the one hand it might be an advantage to be an outsider who remains outside all the factional politics but whether he could deal with all the nuances that are peculiarly French is another matter.

If I know Clive, he is taking extra French lessons as I write and making sure he understands every aspect of French rugby. My gut feeling is that that French rugby is not ready to embrace Woodwardism but don't underestimate him. If anybody can pull it off, Clive can.