Moody Stays Loyal

Unlocking all the secrets of how England demolished logic to reach the World Cup final last weekend will take time given the intensely personal turn their campaign took once the criticism became abusive. Key questions about whether the meeting that followed the 36-0 hammering by South Africa in the pool match degenerated into unseemly recrimination and to what extent - if at all - the coach, Brian Ashton, lost the confidence of his players are being subjected to various versions of the truth.

Lewis Moody, the Leicester flanker, was at the heart of it all, the sheer force of will that characterizes his play making him far more than the impact replacement that many thought would be his lot. A man with a reputation for talking as unambiguously as he plays, Moody rejects the idea that there was any open hostility within the England camp, in which case his view stands in stark contrast to the vehement attack on Ashton's coaching set-up now being peddled by the departing Lawrence Dallaglio. Nor does Moody accept that, in the latter stages, England forsook intelligent rugby and went Neanderthal. They remained adaptable, he says.

'In the quarter-final against Australia we knew they had a weak scrum and we exploited that,' Moody says. 'We knew they hadn't been tested in the ruck area because of the teams they had been playing - so we attacked them there. I think we had a fantastic game against them. The rugby that we played was awesome. We attacked them up front and we attacked them with the ball in hand, which is what we could have done with doing in the final.'

Here he touches on what is clearly his greatest regret, that having retrieved their defense of the trophy from a desperate situation and given themselves a realistic chance of winning the final, they blew it. 'In the final we didn't actually play the rugby that we wanted to, which was frustrating,' he admits. 'We got sucked in to playing a game that they were more used to and ended up kicking a lot of high ball, whereas whenever we ran the ball at them they looked fairly fallible.

'Taity [Mathew Tait] got through on that good run and we had a couple of other opportunities when we attacked with ball in hand. We looked good. But we got sucked into that aerial ping-pong that all the other teams got sucked in to.'

Moody is accepting of the decision not to award a try when Mark Cueto went over in the corner after Tait's break. 'He's a fantastic finisher and he did his utmost to make sure it was as close to a try as he could make it by lifting his foot as he was sliding over, but when you see the replay it's a tough decision.'

If anything, even more discussion has surrounded the England team meeting that followed the crushing defeat by South Africa in the Pool A game on 14 September, as discussed by my colleague Eddie Butler on the opposite page. The idea that has been circulating that certain players turned on Ashton, blaming him in industrial language for inept stewardship of England's start to the tournament, is rejected by Moody. 'The guys did get stuff of their chests, but there was no argument or raised voices. It was just a case of everyone putting their views across about the style of play, including the coaches, and making sure the messages were taken on board.'

So what was said? 'It was a case of everyone being honest with each other and accepting we needed to change things. We put in place a structure that was simpler. We didn't suddenly become a great team overnight. We just recognized the fact that whatever decision anyone made at any given point had to be backed to the hilt by everyone else.

'People aren't always going to make the best decision but as long as the decision they make is followed by the rest of the team then that's all that matters. You have to make the most of it.'

Moody says it was inevitable that Ashton, as head coach, would attract criticism, 'but no one person was accountable for our successes or failures'. On the other hand, Moody agrees with the view that there should be no hasty decision to reappoint Ashton. 'Thankfully this time the RFU [Rugby Football Union] have put in place a review board, which we didn't have after 2003 when everyone got so carried away with winning that they forgot we had to prepare for this World Cup. Hopefully this time the necessary conclusions will be drawn.'

It may even be that the review takes notice of the benefits of a rare instance of support from across sport, cricket's Freddie Flintoff and ex-footballer Ian Wright having been among those who featured in a morale-boosting DVD compiled by Red Bull and shown to the team. It was, says Moody, the sort of connection with the outside world that players cocooned in hotel rooms needed - and provided evidence that what had looked like being a national calamity had been transformed into a shared reminder that no cause is too hopeless to abandon.