Lewis Moody
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Lewis Moody MBE (born 12th June 1978 in Ascot) is an English international rugby union footballer who was part of the 2003 World Cup winning side. Moody is 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) and weighs 229 lb (104 kg).
When he was five he took up mini rugby at Bracknell, when a school friend suggested he join him. He was educated at Oakham School, where he played rugby union at centre.
Moving into the Leicester Tigers youth team however, he was switched to flanker after Leon Lloyd had embarassed him. He made his Tigers debut as an eighteen year old and soon became established as Neil Back's understudy for the openside flanker shirt. Making the Tigers starting XV was difficult however, as internationals Back and Martin Corry took two of the three starting positions, with Paul Gustard and Will Johnson (younger brother of Martin) fighting for the remaining place.
He became the youngest Leicester Tigers' player to play a league game. He scored two tries for England Colts against Wales in April 1997, and was also a member of the side that won the Madrid Sevens at the end of that same season. He also played in both of Tigers’ European Cup wins in 2001 and 2002 and was a member of the near invincible Tigers Premiership winning run in the four seasons between 1998-2002.
Moody made his England debut against Canada on 2 June 2001, when the established internationals Back and Richard Hill were touring Australia with the British and Irish Lions. He won a further two caps on the North American tour and scored a try against the US Eagles in San Francisco. He was then called up to the senior squad for the match against Ireland in Dublin in October 2001 and came on to win cap number four.
The arrival of New Zealand international openside Josh Kronfeld at Leicsester in 2001, threatened to relegate Moody to third choice openside. However, Kronfeld failed to settle at the club and despite offers from Harlequins and Bath, Moody decided to stay.
Moody displaced Lawrence Dallaglio from the first choice England XV for the 2002/3 autumn internationals, but was injured and Dallaglio regained his place.
He played a part in all seven World Cup matches and was an important part and came on as a replacement in the final to replace Hill. He won the final line-out in the phase of play which led to Jonny Wilkinson’s winning drop goal. However, he had suffered a stress fracture of his foot which took a long time to heal and kept him out of the remaining 2003-4 season. Moody made a return for his club in October 2004, in the Heineken European Cup match against Calvisano. With the retirement of Dallaglio and Back and Hill out injured he started all three of England's autumn internationals.
External links
- Lewis's Official Site (http://www.lewismoody.com/)
- sporting heroes (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1315)
- 2003 (http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1860)
- Leicester Tigers (http://www.tigers.co.uk/sub_squad.ink?-database=squad&-response=sub_playerdisplay.ink&-table=detail&-sortField=surname&-sortOrder=ascending&-op=bw&sitename=tigers&-op=bw&type=P&-op=bw&season=2003/2004&-maxRecords=1&-skipRecords=31&-search)
- Planet-Rugby stats (http://www.planet-rugby.com/stats/players/players_listing.phtml/p_r/ENG?setCode=archive&search_text=Moody&tournament_code=international&country=&scdate=1871&ecdate=2004&position=&sbdate=1871&ebdate=2004&go=Submit)