Tuesday 9 March 2010

One Gutted Tigers Supporter

Lewis Moody is moving to Bath. Lote Tuqiri is heading back to Australia. It is the saddest week in my rugby life since Martin Corry announced his retirement.

I have a soft spot for Moody. Almost a year ago I met him at his testimonial event Beers With the England (and Ireland) Boys, and until then I admired and respected the guy, but I came away really liking him as a person.



Moody is a really funny guy. As part of his testimonial duties he told a few tales, including the story of being red carded for a punch on his Leicester team mate Alesana Tuilagi when they faced each other at in an international match at Twickenham in 2005, the first time an Englishman had ever been red carded at HQ. Tuilagi is also a funny guy as he commented, with as much of an innocent look as he could manage, that he never felt Mad Dog Moody's punch.

One of the charity auction items up for grabs at the event was a weeks' stay in his villa in Spain. While it was actually being auctioned, David disappeared for a few minutes and then reappeared chuckling.

He had been to the gents' toilet at the same time as Moody, and he commented, allegedly as they were both having a pee, "That's your villa they're auctioning out there, Lewis".

"Oh," he replied. "I guess I better get the f*cking thing built then".

I saw the lady who won the auction. She wouldn't have appreciated the joke. I'm surprised she could go outside in the sunlight and even therefore consider a trip to Spain.

Most of the people at the event didn't seem to have any real interest in rugby or the Leicester Tigers, which probably explains why, on hearing I was a season ticket holder, a couple of the players stopped looking like they were just going through the motions of the autograph-pose for photo-chit chat routine and were happy to have genuine conversations. Moody was one of them.

As it was coming up to the end of the Premiership season, David and I asked him how he fancied our chances of making it to the final. He told us to book our tickets. We did, and we not only made it to the final, we won. I'm sure Moody's confidence was shared by the team which is why Leicester was so successful.

But my favourite part of the conversation was when Moody shook David's hand and then bent down (quite a distance really since I'm only 5' 4") and gave me a kiss on the cheek. That was it. I was smitten.

And now he's leaving us for Bath. I suppose it could have been worse. He could have signed for Wasps.

The second blow of the week was having to bid a fond farewell to Lote Tuqiri.

To be honest, before he signed to play for Leicester I never heard of Tuqiri. What can I say? I am still very ignorant in rugby terms. But David assured me that it was a big deal, and I knew he was telling the truth when Tuqiri came off the bench in our match against South Africa in November. Our incredible match where the Leicester scrum dominated that of the World Champions ...

But back to the point, as soon as Tuqiri's name was announced and he ran onto the pitch, you could feel the electricity go through the crowd. He was, indeed, a special signing.



I was there, on the Crumbie Terrace at Welford Road when, right in front of me, Tuqiri scored his first try for the Tigers. And then in the same match when he scored his second. That was an incredible day.

Unfortunately I never had the pleasure of personally meeting Tuqiri, but after a few exchanges on Twitter regarding rugby and Wellies, I think that he, too, is a really nice guy. He will be sadly missed, and I wish him the very best in the next stage of his career Down Under. I hope he won't need those Wellies so much.


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