Moody Loss a Blow For England

No one will understand the implications of the loss of Lewis Moody for England's Six Nations campaign more than his international coach and ex-teammate Martin Johnson. Johnson will be cursing his luck this week, and rather than any drug-related issues, it will be a broken ankle at the forefront of his mind.

With England's first match only two weeks away, this latest squad withdrawal is arguably the biggest blow to Johnson's hopes. England cannot afford a below-par showing - as different nations discover each year, a year is a devastatingly long a time to wait to rectify the wrongs of a doomed campaign.

 

The Autumn Internationals were always going to be the toughest of first tests for Johnson, and he was always likely to be forgiven for a shaky start. Having been thrown in at the deep end, the only life-raft in sight appeared in the form of the Pacific Islanders. England were run ragged in the choppy waters of the Southern Hemisphere big-guns.

The Autumn Internationals dented Englands pride - similar displays in the Six Nations will start to erode it. Johnson will be fully aware that he cannot survive solely on past playing glories and nor, one suspects, would he be in any way happy to do so. He will expect his players to stand up and be counted, in much the same way that they did for him as captain. He will have envisaged such a charge being led by the likes of Lewis Moody.

The flanker is a veteran of more than fifty games for his country. He doesn't always come off the pitch clutching the man-of-the-match award, his performances as such are not always notable, but his passion is. Like any player he may make mistakes; misplace passes, give away too many fouls, but successive England managers have found his big hits and big heart just too big to ignore.

Whilst experience should never be the be all and end all in sport, certain situations increase its importance. Martin Johnson's first Six Nations squad is one such situation. Lewis Moody alone is likely to practically match the collective caps count of the starting back line.

Crucially too, Moody has been part of a winning England setup. Making his debut in 2001 he soon became integral to Woodward's World Champions - a team immersed in a winning culture, which they have been striving to recapture ever since. 

Quite apart form his considerable experience, it is Moody's attitude, application and sheer desire to win which England will miss against their fierce rivals. These were grey areas for England in the Autumn. Of course they wanted to win, but at times they had a rather awkward way of showing it.

Moody, like Josh Lewsey, who England recently lost to International retirement, plays with an infectious and more obvious, unabashed brand of desire. What Martin Johnson would give for this to spread amongst his young charges. This England team must learn to steal the initiative, charge down the opposition right from the kick-off and pay no more than due respect to reputation. All of these details feature heavily on the combined CVs of Moody and Lewsey.

Whether starting or used from the bench one thing is for sure; Moody is a man possessed when representing the red rose. He'd be happy, one would imagine, to wield his crutches and take on Italy by himself in England's opening game if his manager asked him to. Indeed, those crutches would conveniently increase his wingspan for those fearless charge-downs. But instead he'll be resting that ankle, watching like the rest of us, hoping to see some of himself in his teammates' commitment.

England are capable of having a successful Six Nations campaign. But for now their camp is engulfed by unanswered questions. They will succeed if all the small details can come together. If they can sustain a challenge into the final quarter of a game, if the back line can find some unity and a common purpose and if a number of on-pitch leaders can emerge, then they can top the group. Fail to do so and they could find themselves propping it up.

In short, England fans do not know what to expect from their team this year. With Lewis Moody, they always do. 

Cipriani's Apprenticeship

Danny Cipriani will be hoping that 2009 brings some consistency to his game and heralds a fresh start to his fledgeling rugby career. He kicked off the year in the best possible way, with an influential performance in Wasp's 24-18 victory over London rivals Harlequins.  

For Cipriani 2008 contained some noticeable highs, but finished on a downwards spiral of lows culminating in England's morale-sapping Autumn internationals. The turn of a new year will see the Wasps and England fly-half set out to prove his growing number of critics wrong and show the world he has been harshly treated.

And harshly treated he has been. A remarkably speedy recovery from serious injury, in time to spearhead England's southern hemisphere examination, may in fact have hindered his progress. He faltered in some big matches in front of a critical and demanding rugby press. On top of that, the Twickenham faithful seemed to make him a scapegoat for the teams massively under par performances during those matches. But they are missing the point. 

Such close scrutiny is in danger of hampering this true gem of English rugby. He was not at his best in the Autumn, and his performance level dipped, in direct correlation with the scrutiny of the media and the supporters, as the series of tests unfolded. 

The first match against Australia was typical Cipriani. There was good and there was bad. Wayward passes and charged-down kicks were sandwiched by sublime runs and the rare ability (in England's case) to find space. That's what you get with Cipriani. No 21 year-old will ever look the finished article at such a level, and he possesses undoubted weak areas, but when he's good, he looks the future of English rugby for the next 10 years.

Twenty minutes into the South Africa fixture and fans were calling for Cipriani to be taken off. He had endured a torrid time and the world champions were almost out of sight. Again these fans were missing the point. The only bench alternative was Toby Flood, a fine player, but not yet a match winner at this level, and nowhere near Cipriani's class. Flood could have come on, and the scoreline would quite possibly have settled in its present state, but that was no good to England. They needed magic, a dazzling break, a sublime bit of skill, something, someone to get them back into contention; and amongst their flat-footed backline the only man willing or capable was the man currently occupying number 10 shirt.

It didn't come off for Cipriani that day, but he will have many others - as long as he is allowed the freedom to express himself and the time to learn from his mistakes. He can land his team in hot water, but that can be addressed - he can be taught how not to. What cannot be taught is that rugby brain he possesses; his magical rugby instinct, the ability to spot a break, and his willingness to try it. Cipriani is one of that rare breed, a match winner, and England are not blessed with those. If the harsh scrutiny of his game blunts this, his main asset, then England are in danger of losing potentially their most potent weapon.

It is testiment to how quickly Cipriani has bedded into not only professional rugby but the international stage, that everybody seems to have forgotten that he is a 21 year-old who suffered an ankle injury in May which sidelined him until October. That he was picked to play in the ill-fated Autumn international series is not his fault. Too early? Possibly, but through his inclusion, Martin Johnson was recognising his value to the England setup, as well as the dearth of alternatives.

Cipriani was replaced for the final match of the Autumn series by Toby Flood. Flood may have managed to avoid any high profile errors that day against the fearsome All Blacks, but he failed to get a grip on the game in the way that the shirt number on his back requires him to. In short, England looked like they had no chance, and that is what Cipriani will always give you; a chance.

Cipriani started 2009 in typical Cipriani style. Having taken a complete break from rugby in the Carribean the previous week, he returned to the starting line-up today against Harlequins. By taking the holiday he ran the risk of further criticism if the move was not payed back with a strong performance. Fortunately it was.

Not a perfect performance - two charged down kicks spring to mind (a rather too regular offence) - but a commanding one, which was highly instrumental in Wasp's victory and did enough to suggest that club and country will reap the rewards of their young fly-half in 2009. 

His quick ball in the attacking third in particular will have caught the watchful eye of England manager Martin Johnson, and his expert handling in the Chris Bishay's try was nothing short of sublime. That single moment summed up everything that Danny Cipriani is about, and all he offers a team. As with Wayne Rooney in football, no matter how anonymous he may have been for 60 minutes of a game, his hands and feet can conjour something out of nothing.

Danny Cipriani is serving his rugby apprenticeship in the eyes of the whole world, at Premiership and International level. He sometimes gets it wrong, but when he gets it right he does so in such a way that few players in the world (and even fewer in and around the England set-up) are capable of. Through his endeavours to date he has shown more than enough to warrant the perseverance of his selection for club and country.  Unpolished maybe, but a true gem nonetheless.