All in the scrum

A rugby miscellany compiled by GAVIN CUMMISKEY

Moody's rating: A shambles

ENGLAND CAPTAIN Lewis Moody has confirmed the camp were a shambles during the World Cup.

In an interview with the Mail on Sunday, Moody stated the whole experience was a "disaster".

The Bath flanker retired from international rugby after France knocked them out at the quarter-final stage and now wishes he had put a tighter rein on the social structure that developed within the group.

"For many, it will be remembered for the off-field incidents. I maintain that they were blown up and taken out of context but, at the same time, I concede that some of the behaviour was, at best, naive and, at worst, totally unacceptable.

"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. It is impossible to say how much impact the off-field stories had on our performances. But clearly they didn't help."

Seemingly, Moody noticed the attitude was all wrong from the get go.

"I had growing concerned about the attitude in the camp, which had become apparent pretty much from the moment we arrived in Auckland.

"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.

"I have to take some responsibility. As captain, it was my watch and I don't think I helped by introducing awards for things like joke of the day, brown-nose of the day and dick of the day.

" It was designed to inject some fun but instead added to the feeling that everything was being taken too light-heartedly. After a week I canned the awards."

Think that's bad? According to Samoa captain Mahonri Schwalger key members of the union and management treated the whole experience as a "one big holiday" that proved detrimental in their failure.

Provincial matters again

FOR the majority of supporters, the rugby season starts again this Friday.

At least the always-electric meeting of Leinster and Munster at the Aviva Stadium is at a respectable hour (kick-off 8pm - live on TG4).

A premium seat behind the goal can still be purchased for €55 but there are also still €30 seats available.

Choke tackle: Henry's tricks

DUE to the manner they sneaked over the finishing line in the World Cup final, the "All Blacks are chokers" theory has yet to be shelved.

Graham Henry, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph's Paul Ackford, was unwilling to delve too deeply into the New Zealand performance in the 8-7 defeat of France. But he did say: "We didn't play well. But we managed to keep on task and showed a lot of character and quite a bit of discipline."

So, how did Henry and his staff combat the lingering spectre of the players folding under pressure? For starters, they didn't ignore it and hope it would go away: "There were three basic aspects to what we were trying to do. The first was understanding and acquiring the knowledge and the mental skills to handle pressure. The second was creating an environment where the players self-managed themselves. And the third was making sure everybody has total clarity around the game we were trying to play.

"We've all seen guys under extreme pressure who don't appear to be there. They can't seem to focus on the requirement at the time and have escaped the reality of their situation. We gave them information about why that occurred and provided triggers to get them back on task. They're not necessarily big things. Some of the squad found that slapping themselves on the knee helped."

Brad Thorn splashed water on his face to come back to the present. Others stamped their feet.

Munster's open training session cancelled

MUNSTER'S planned open training session tomorrow at Thomond Park has been cancelled due to concerns over the pitch.

Ireland play France in a Rugby League international next Saturday (tickets are €10 for adults and €5 for kids) at the stadium while the Northampton Saints arrive seven days later.

"With two games scheduled for the pitch in the space of seven days and given the recent bad weather, the squad training session has had to be switched back to UL," read a Branch statement.