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May 15, 2010

Posted on 05/15/2010

'I've had a great run at Leicester but at Bath we'll go from strength to strength'

The Independent's Chris Hewett speaks to Lewis Moody whose summer move from Leicester Tigers to Bath has raised eyebrows in the midlands ahead of the rivals' clash tomorrow afternoon.

"Strange days? There have been none stranger. A volcano in Iceland closes airports in North Africa, George Osborne and Vince Cable walk hand in hand into the fires of the banking crisis and Lewis Moody prepares to leave Leicester for Bath by playing for Leicester against Bath. And not in any old match, either. The second of tomorrow's Guinness Premiership semi-finals pits the most successful English club of the professional era against the greatest of the amateur era – clubs that built their supremacy on the assumption that no player operating at the height of his powers could conceivably contemplate joining someone else. On that basis, the man is flying in the face of history.
"As Moody's form is somewhere near its apex, it could be said that this is Leicester's "Simon Halliday moment". A couple of decades ago, Halliday left Bath for Harlequins – a decision that reduced the movers and shakers at the Recreation Ground to a state of spluttering disbelief. The England centre was not forgiven in a hurry. After Stuart Barnes, one of the guiding spirits at Bath, had earned his side a John Player Cup final victory over Quins by dropping a goal in extra time, Halliday extended the hand of reconciliation by saying: "If anyone had to drop a goal to beat me in a cup final, I'm glad it was you, Stuart." To which Barnes responded, sulphurically: "If I had to drop a goal to beat anyone in a cup final, I'm glad it was you, Simon."

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