Moody blasts players’ attitude

BANNING PLAYERS from going out might have saved England’s failed Rugby World Cup campaign, says skipper Lewis Moody.

The Martin Johnson-coached side, which was knocked out in the quarter-finals, made headlines for all the wrong reasons during the tournament.

There was Mike Tindall’s highly-publicised night out in Queenstown, players making lewd comments towards a hotel worker in Dunedin and Manu Tuilagi jumping off a ferry into the Auckland harbour.

The Mail on Sunday has published extracts from Moody’s biography, Mad Dog: An Englishman, in which the back-rower expresses his disappointment in the squad’s behaviour during its time in New Zealand.

“I had been growing concerned about the attitude in the camp, which had become apparent pretty much from the moment we arrived in Auckland,” he wrote.

“We were on the other side of the world, a lot of the guys were young, well-known, wealthy and believed they were invincible.

“I remember thinking that some were not quite in the right mind-set.

“If I could change one thing, knowing some of the characters we had in that squad, it would be to have banned them from going out at all.”

Moody, who last week announced his retirement from international rugby, also owned up to his own shortcomings.

“I take some of the blame. I was captain and the buck stopped with Johnno (manager Martin Johnson) and me.”