Moody leads by example

Moody was England's one shining light as he lived up to his 'mad-dog' nickname with a fearless, all-action, man-of-the-match display as Martin Johnson's team beat Argentina 16-9 on Saturday. The Leicester flanker threw himself into tackles, made flying charge-downs, led the chase for every high kick and generally put his nervy colleagues to shame.

And while he accepts improvement is essential he is sure England will take confidence from a barely-deserved victory, saying: "We have big strides to make before the New Zealand game. You can't take away the impact a win makes. It gives you that bit more confidence going into training. You tweak things and try things a bit more."

He added: "We are going to have to be far better in many areas, but we are excited about playing the All Blacks. I love playing them. I remember scoring a try in my first game against them. That was huge. Nothing changes. Playing them is still a massive incentive.

"We go in as underdogs but a victory does huge things for your confidence."

It will need to because, despite the victory, England went backwards against Argentina, opposition they will meet in the pool stages of the next World Cup.

Poor old Ugo Monye seemed to sum up England's plight most of all. Out of position at full-back the Harlequins wing had a nightmare, dropping three high balls and fumbling one simple pass in the first half.

Backs coach Brian Smith switched him to the wing at half-time with Mark Cueto stepping in at full-back and Monye admitted it had been an ordeal.

Monye said: "I was happy to play at full-back and thought I was capable of doing it. I'm not hiding, it's not my character to do that. It was poor.

"Smithy is an intelligent coach and he knew I was under pressure and wasn't having my best game. He decided to take me out of the spotlight at 15 and Cuets came in and did a great job."