Moody ready to lead

Moody: loved the job

I feel confident that in the three games I have captained England, I have grown in experience each time and I will keep doing that if I am given the opportunity.

Lewis Moody
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Lewis Moody has reiterated his desire to captain England into the 2011 Rugby World Cup.

The 32-year-old Bath forward took over from Steve Borthwick at the end of last season and became only the second England captain to lead his country to a Test win in Australia.

But manager Martin Johnson last week refused to confirm Moody as his captain for the forthcoming November internationals.

The new Bath flanker would relish the chance to lead England into their autumn campaign against New Zealand, Australia, Samoa and South Africa.

And asked whether he had proven himself during the summer tour, Moody said: "Yeah, I feel I can do it.

"I feel confident that in the three games I have captained England, I have grown in experience each time and I will keep doing that if I am given the opportunity.

"I absolutely loved the job on the summer tour. It was a new experience doing it for that period of time, through the rollercoaster of losing the first Test and winning the second Test, which was incredible.

"As it was a longer period of time you take a lot more responsibility on your shoulders and you take it more personally.

"It was certainly an experience for me, taking on all that pressure and responsibility for the team over a few weeks. If you are asked to be captain, perhaps that's the way it should be.

"You are always learning, no matter how old you are and I enjoyed that experience as captain.

Honoured

"I feel very honoured and privileged that I was given that task - in the summer and for the France game - that I could do it and that we could take a win in Australia for only the third time.

"It gave me a lot of confidence that I can do it. So if I was asked to do it again I would jump at the chance."

But Moody can understand Johnson's decision. Johnson insisted competition was so strong in the England squad that he could not commit to naming Moody as his long-term captain.

Moody added: "It is the way Johnno operates and rightly so. I can't second-guess what he is going to do - he will make a decision about it when he needs to.

"You need to be performing. The guys picked in the team need to be the best players and there are genuinely a raft of guys in the squad who can do that job."