Moody in the mood
Richard Knowler
JOE MOODY glances up and there are around a dozen TV cameras and 50 journalists staring back. The scene is in contrast from the one he would have experienced had he been interviewed before Canterbury’s NPC final tonight against Auckland in Christchurch. There he would probably lean on a fence and yarn into a single recorder, maybe two.
This setting is a different world. Moody is flanked by All Blacks teammates Brodie Retallick and Dane Coles as he takes a pew in the south London hotel and is questioned about the World Cup semifinal against South Africa on Sunday morning (NZ time).
Overhead the planes roar into Heathrow, while all round him the photographers’ camera shutters go berserk. It is a busy time. Everyone is counting down the hours until the All Blacks and Springboks try to grind each other into the Twickenham turf, but Moody seems relaxed.
Tony Woodcock and Wyatt Crockett’s misfortune – the former is out of the tournament because of a hamstring strain while the latter hopes to recover from his groin injury in time to be available next week – has resulted in Moody being catapulted into the All Blacks’ starting side.
The story behind the loosehead prop’s ascension into the All Blacks’ ranks isn’t as dramatic as that of Stephen Donald, the previously unwanted playmaker who kicked the penalty which gave his country an 8-7 win over France in the 2011 final, but it is a pretty good one nonetheless.
When Moody was omitted from the 31-man World Cup squad, Steve Hansen gave him a message: get fitter. Although named in the All Blacks’ 41-man training squad ahead of the World Cup, it was clear Moody, who had struggled to get starts ahead of Crockett at the Crusaders, needed to unleash something special to convince the selectors he should be named in the final 31. He didn’t and wasn’t.
‘‘That was Steve’s key message to me when I got told I wasn’t going to be in that initial squad, just to go away and work on my fitness,’’ Moody said.
‘‘Back at Canterbury I have been doing my extras on Mondays and Tuesdays. Just front-loading my week and really going hard.’’
Woodcock’s test career ended in the final pool match against Tonga in Newcastle. Crockett, his replacement, couldn’t believe his misfortune when he had to leave the field in the first half of quarterfinal win over France in Cardiff a week later.
Moody, having joined the squad just a few days earlier in Swansea as a replacement for Woodcock, was preferred on the bench for the French test ahead of Ben Franks, the swingman who can cover both sides.
Having been tossed a lifeline no-one expected him to receive, Moody experienced a heady night in the 62-13 win over the French and even unleashed a terrific offload out of the back of his right hand to set up a try for Tawera Kerr-Barlow.
With Crockett still in doubt, Chiefs and Counties loosehead prop Pauliasi Manu has been asked to travel to London as insurance, should the All Blacks lose another loosehead. For now it is all about Moody, who has been given the chance to earn his 10th cap and just his fourth start.
Moody once represented his country in wrestling and won a bronze at the Junior Commonwealth Games before opting to concentrate on rugby at 21.
Some of the manoeuvres and holds used in that sport wouldn’t be allowed in rugby, he says. Not even against the Springboks who are expected to unleash a mad rush of bodies, time and again, in the semifinal.
‘‘You can use a little bit of it in cleanouts and the breakdown but not too much,’’ Moody says. ‘‘Otherwise I will probably be on the sideline with a yellow card and that sort of thing.’’