Moore concerned England adventure could be over before it has even begun
AS you would expect of someone who was such a tough, no-nonsense competitor on the pitch, Brian Moore gets straight to the point when it comes to assessing England’s World Cup chances.
They may have the huge advantage of being able to count on capacity, partisan Twickenham crowds to cheer them on, but the former international hooker turned journalist and broadcaster insists his country cannot underestimate the task at hand simply to progress from a testing Pool A.
He warns, too, that the adventure could be over almost before it has begun.
‘England’s World Cup could either be off to a fabulous start with great momentum or it could be sunk out of sight after the first couple of weeks,’ said Moore, who played in three World Cups for England and was part of the side which finished runners-up to Australia in the 1991 Twickenham final, following the famous 9-6 semi-final defeat of Scotland at Murrayfield.
‘Unlike a lot of other teams who have their strongest games towards the end of their pools, a start of Fiji, Wales and Australia leaves absolutely no room or margin for error for England.
‘So it’s an all-or-nothing start for them and I’m sure that has meant a different preparation to what might be the norm.
‘I think that showed in the warm-ups, in that they were further ahead than Ireland, whose big games are still a month away.’
Moore earned 64 caps in his England career, with his last World Cup appearance coming in 1995. Since then rugby has changed out of all recognition, not least due to the stunning decision in the aftermath of that tournament to open the game up to professionalism.
‘The 1991 tournament was where it all started — suddenly rugby went from the inside pages to the back pages, and by the end of the tournament, to the front pages,’ said Moore, in Edinburgh this week. ‘It was a hugely exciting but very different thing.
‘Now, it will be on the back pages from the start and if England do well it will quickly hit the front pages. I don’t think people understand how big this will be.
‘It won’t be as big as an Olympics or a FIFA event, but it will be a very, very significant tournament.
‘And it’s huge for England because they have to get out of the pool stages to maintain the public interest, for the championship to do well, and that will be tougher than ever.
‘I still think the winner of the England group has a very good chance of getting to the final, whoever that is. They’re not going to find more difficult games than they’ve had whereas others won’t have had the same examination in three difficult games in a row.
‘England’s home advantage will take them somewhere near, but what they don’t have in a lot of their team units is a lot of Test match experience together and that will be a factor. For England fans right now it’s a case of “wait and see”.’
Moore appears a far more relaxed figure in retirement compared to the figure the Scotland fans loved to hate when Auld Enemy rivalry was at its height 24 years ago. He admits, however, to feeding off pressure as a player. Will this England squad do the same, particularly key figures like George Ford, Henry Slade and the Vunipola brothers experiencing their first World Cup?
‘If the pressure is getting to you, you’re almost certainly not in the right frame of mind and are not playing well,’ he said, ‘and then it becomes oppressive. But if you start to play well you can use that positively because it creates a huge surge of confidence and that really does help the squad. It can go both ways, but we used that surge in 1991... until the final, where we still cocked it up.’
Caledonia Best is the Official Beer of Scottish Rugby. For more, follow on twitter @caledoniabest and on facebook