Thanks, but no thanks.

Former England boss Clive Woodward has revealed he applied to be France’s head coach after the 2015 Rugby World Cup – but was snubbed despite being told he was the best candidate.

Woodward, who won the Rugby World Cup with England in 2003, hasn’t coached in rugby since leading the British and Irish Lions in 2005 – an infamous tour that ended in complete and utter humiliation at the hands of the All Blacks.

He briefly worked in football with Southampton in the Premier League but has mostly been doing punditry work since exiting the game.

But it appears he has tried to get back into coaching by applying the become head coach of Les Blues. In an excellent interview with French publication Midi Olympique, Woodward explained:

“They came to me at the end of my presentation. They told me that I was their best candidate by far, but that the post was already filled… the call for applications was obviously a big joke, a big mess. I looked at them, and asked, ‘But why did I come?’ Woodward said.

“I had long prepared my presentation. I arrived in a room in front of the jury. There was a pack of people… Serge Blanco was there, Jo Maso too. And a whole bunch of people I did not know, around president Pierre Camou.

“I unfolded the presentation of my project as I had planned, everything went well. In the end, Pierre Camou simply came to me and said, ‘Clive, unanimously your presentation is the best of all. And by far. But you will not have the job. We have already recruited Guy Noves’. I took it very badly. It was disrespectful.

Do you think France would be in better shape right now had they taken on Woodward? Noves’ time in charge wasn’t exactly successful.”