James While: ‘Lewis Moody’s announcement rocked me to the core but he will smash into this with zero holding back’
England legend Lewis Moody.
It’s not often that, as a rugby writer, you get the chance to write a personal piece. I agonised long and hard as to whether I should write this given the rawness of the news, but it seems churlish not to share some insight into one of the greatest to wear the rose – Lewis Walton Moody MBE.
Early moments
I’ve spent the last 18 years combining my role at Planet Rugby with my career in professional services (architecture, engineering). And it was through the latter, when my company signed Lew as an ambassador in 2007 that we first met.
The first meeting took place in Twickenham car park. Predictably, Moodos was injured and we bonded over cricket. “What do you bowl?” he enquired. “Fast medium,” was my response. “F*ck me, bigging it up already…” was the immortal and irreverent reply to a guy who’d just invested a considerable sum into the Bank of Lewis!
From there, a friendship of absolute brutal micky taking commenced, nothing was out of bounds, and Lewis’s wit, honed in the brutal environment of the Tigers dressing room, was predictably razor sharp – and absolutely deprecating – both to self, and to others.
The deal, struck by his agent, Big Red Management, was as tight as a drum; but nothing was too much trouble for Lewis. He learned about our business, opened his black book, took us to meet potential clients and gave far more than initially promised.
Empathy personified
As the work relationship progressed, it became apparent that Lew’s key quality was empathy.
He wasn’t one to big his monumental achievements up – don’t forget he retired as a world champion and the most decorated player in the history of Northern Hemisphere rugby. More so, he wanted to know about others, what made them tick, how he could help, mentor or support them.
A personal moment that will live with me forever; I am, now openly, of the pink persuasion, for want of a better term (stop reading now if that’s an issue for you!).
Back then, attitudes were perhaps slightly more conservative, although change was taking place rapidly. I was naturally cautious about creating a potential barrier and was somewhat guarded about mentioning it.
One day, with Lewis again predictably in a plaster cast and on crutches, we visited a client in Leicester. I dropped him home in Arneby, just outside Leicester, home of one of the best curry houses in the county, as I found out many times.
As he rested his leg on the dashboard of my new car (grrrrr!) I said I needed to get back as “me and my partner were going out that evening.”
“No probs, bud,” said Lew.
“By the way, what’s HIS name?” he asked.
I was rather taken aback. “Who’ve you been speaking to?” I enquired, nervously.
“No-one,” he said. “I just figured you’d been trying to tell me for ages, but you hadn’t quite plucked the courage up, and you feared my reaction, so I wanted to make it easy for you. It makes no odds, we’re mates now and that’s that!”
I can honestly say that moment will live with me forever.
And it was typical Lewis Moody – smashing into something head-on rather than backing down from a difficult situation – zero holding back.
Laughter and tales
I left the company Lew was contracted to around 2010 but Lewis and I stayed in touch, working together on speaking engagements – from the British Dental Association to a wonderful Arcadis PLC conference, to my local cricket club, most paid, but some not, to raise funds for real people in real sports clubs that he’d do for me out of the kindness of his heart, for nowt, because it made a difference to others.
And what a speaker; one of the funniest and most irreverent you’ll ever hear – for me, alongside Bayfield and Flatman as the best in rugby.
But typical Moodos, he’d arrive with all of his timings scrawled in biro on his hand – and then ask me to go up on stage with him to MC and to prompt the stories and timelines, which I’d heard so many times by now it was easy.
Lewis Moody ‘staying positive’ as England great reveals Motor Neurone Disease diagnosis
“For those of you who know of me, I’m Lewis Moody. For those of you who have never heard of me, I’m the f**ker who dropped the goal to win the World Cup for England,” was always his brilliant opening line, guaranteed to get the audience on his side.
The stories would flow like a vintage claret – the moment he ran onto the pitch in the Rugby World Cup Final to Clive Woodward crushing his confidence with the immortal line; “And whatever you do, don’t give away a f**cking penalty, you tw*t…” (precisely what Lewis immediately did!) to the hilarious tales of England hooker Mark ‘Ronnie’ Regan (often the central figure in Lewis’s stories) spraying himself with lineout glue in training, in the mistaken belief it was mosquito spray, and then trying to force himself into a shell tracksuit, which immediately stuck itself to his entire body, blindfolding him and preventing him from moving.
I’ll also never forget a post-match moment after England v South Africa in 2009. Lewis came over and handed me his grubby, mud and blood-covered match shirt. “Do you want me to sign it? ” he asked. “Sure, says I.” I read the words. It said: “To James, Love your work, you f**king cock! Lewis.” As he chucked it back to me he grinned, “Try putting that on eBay now!”
I won’t steal Lew’s thunder on any more rugby tales (although a heads up – Ronnie’s pizza oven is an all-time great of a tale), as I’m sure there’s plenty of fund raisers ahead of him still, but when he moved onto his challenges, one of the funniest incidents, on his North Pole trek, took place when a cargo plane he was in, with England lock Danny Grewcock, crashed landed on the ice. Grewcock was flung across the plane and almost decapitated Lewis, still strapped into his seat. “He spent his entire career trying to maim me,” he said, “and now I take him on a trip and he still f**ing well tries to do it,” was Lewis’s pithy observation.
Last year, he and his former England back-row colleague Nick Easter came up to my local cricket club, Stourport CC, a Premier League side of very modest roots. We did beer and bags of chips with curry sauce in the tiny clubhouse, whilst Lewis and Nick emptied their story arsenal for fully three hours, raising the roof to roars of laughter and rapturous applause. Not a penny changed hands, but typical of Lew, he turned to me afterwards and said, “I enjoyed that more than any I’ve done in ages; real working-class top lads, real atmosphere.”
Evolution and learning
As Lewis started to embrace boots to suits, we discussed him turning his speaking routine into a more formal business coaching role. He was eager to pick my brain.
I thought long and hard and suggested that many ex-pros do this; it was a crowded market, he needed to differentiate and offer longer-term and deeper value through his leadership experience.
My thoughts were to get properly qualified in facilitation and focus on getting a smaller number of clients, but with closer insight through relationships. It was typical of Lewis that he did precisely this, and his consultancy work and leadership mentorship is now eagerly sought after. And rightly so; Moodos is the first to admit he was a reluctant and uncomfortable leader, learning how to manage and inspire others HIS way, so there’s a deep authenticity about how he delivers his advice.
The announcement on Tuesday rocked me to the core. Yes, there were tears, yes, there was deep sadness. But I know this guy well enough to know that he’ll take this b*stard of a disease on with more conviction, more physicality and more belief than anyone else on earth, whilst empathising with all around him who are suffering with sadness and despair around him. In fact, it’s a mark of the man that he’ll be more concerned about those close to him than himself – there’s little doubt of that.
Those are the qualities that sum up Lewis Moody – one of the finest and most inspiring people I’ve ever met in my life and career.
All at Planet Rugby, for whom he’s given over 150 interviews, will be with him on every step of his journey, as will every single fan, player or person in rugby.
We owe him that.
Close friends and former Leicester teammates, Geordan Murphy and Leon Lloyd, have launched a GoFundMe page to raise funds to support Moody’s care, his family’s needs and contribute to related causes in the fight against MND.