Clive Woodward has been linked with a return to the RFU © Getty Images

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Players/Officials: Clive Woodward

Teams: England

British Olympic Association (BOA) chairman Colin Moynihan has dismissed speculation linking Sir Clive Woodward with the vacant post of performance director at the Rugby Football Union (RFU).

Woodward, England's Rugby World Cup-winning coach in 2003, is currently serving as director of elite performance for the BOA and is working towards the 2012 Olympics in London.

Press reports have consistenly linked him with a return to the RFU since the search for a performance director began with chief executive John Steele's re-organisation of the union.

Rob Andrew, whose role as elite rugby director was scrapped by Steele, was recently appointed as RFU operations director and Steve Grainger as development director, although the recruitment process for the performance job, the highest-profile of the three, has been delayed by the lengthy interview process which requires candidates to give up nearly two days of their time.

"We have an outstanding management team at the BOA and it is no surprise they are in demand," Moynihan said. "Clive is doing a great job in the run-up to the Olympic Games and will, I hope, stay with us. Reports about him returning to a role with the RFU are purely speculative."

The RFU also issued a statement in order to dispel the rumours, insisting the role will be treated like all of their other appointments. The statement read: "The RFU has seen the stories suggesting that we are on the verge of making the appointment of its new performance director. These are incorrect and are based on rumour and speculation, not fact.

"We continue to run the same open recruitment process for this role as we have for all the other senior roles at the RFU and candidates were invited to apply. We are pleased to say they did so and we have a strong short list who will go forward to the next stage but we will not comment on any individual people who may or may not have applied for the role as it remains a confidential process.

"We can say, as we recently confirmed, that we would expect to make an announcement by the end of May at the latest. We recognise that the media will continue to speculate but we are not in a position to disclose more details at the current time."