MARTY MOORE HASN’T played for Ireland for over 18 months. He’s not sure when he might get another cap, or if he will.
The same, of course, could be said for most players. There are no guarantees in professional rugby.
But Moore acknowledges that he has made the task of adding to his 10 Test caps all the more demanding by joining Wasps. Despite that fact, he is utterly convinced that he has made the right decision with his move to the Premiership club on a three-year deal.
Now five games into life under Dai Young in Coventry, Moore feels refreshed and revitalised as he puts the injury problems of his final season with home province Leinster behind him.
The 25-year-old is settling into something approaching a normal routine in the town of Warwick, which lies in the countryside 20 minutes outside Coventry – “it’s little bit different to living in Dublin city!”
His fiancée, Lona, and himself are close to many of his Wasps team-mates and he’s now attempting to find time to search out a guitar teacher as he looks to occupy himself in his down time from rugby.
That said, establishing himself on the pitch is the clear priority number one.
Moore – who was rested for yesterday’s Champions Cup clash with Zebre – has made two starts in five appearances so far and the quality of the opposition has stood out in England.
Marcos Ayerza, Joe Marler and Mako Vunipola have been his opposition props in some of those recent appearances.
“That’s the two English looseheads week after week and I had Ayerza in round one,” says Moore. “It’s a very, very high quality of opponent across the board, but especially it seems to be in the front row. It’s a league that attracts experienced front rowers.
“Between that and the training with the coaches, it’s been a big learning experience. I think I’ve learned a lot more in the last few weeks of games and training than I have in a long time. That’s massive for me and it almost feels like a new skill, scrummaging, at the moment.”
Wasps have been playing scintillating attacking rugby early this season, scoring a league-leading 27 tries in their opening six Premiership games and rarely kicking the ball off the pitch. Ball in hand is everything, and that style requires exceptional levels of fitness.
“Pre-season was the closest thing to hell any of us had experienced to date,” says Moore, now weighing in at 120kg. “Anything that came before it paled in comparison.”
While the former Castleknock College man had to deal with a calf niggle in the opening weeks of the campaign as his body re-adjusted to playing games – he only had 14 appearances last season at Leinster – Moore is now feeling fitter than ever.
The official Premiership stats show he has covered 18km in his 188 minutes of game time, with Young’s game plan demanding mobility even from the front row.
While Moore has been contributing his usual set-piece effort, and hammering into a total of 170 collisions so far, he is excited that Young wants to see him bring more ball-carrying into his game.
It’s not something Moore has traditionally been asked to do, but with his 10 carries this season returning gainline progress every time, Wasps want him to get ball in hand.
“It’s a different way of playing to what I would have been used to maybe, and different to a lot of clubs even here in the Prem,” says Moore of the Wasps’ game plan. “That’s exciting and it’s something I’m working on – I don’t want to be just somebody who hits rucks and makes tackles.
“That needs to be done [he has a 97% ruck effectiveness rate so far], but I’m being encouraged to get onto the ball.
“I’ve always focused on the other side of the ball with defence and spoiling things for the opposition when they have possession, but it’s a good challenge for me to focus on getting some carries in.”
While Moore naturally wants to play every game he can, he says it’s reassuring to see that Wasps were willing to manage his calf niggle and allow him return to full fitness.
The perception of moves away from Ireland sometimes suggests that player welfare goes out the window, but he points out that the quality of fellow tightheads Jake Cooper-Woolley and Phil Swainston means Wasps’ director of rugby Dai Young has options in the three shirt.
Young won 51 Welsh caps and toured with the Lions three times as a tighthead prop, while assistant forwards coaches Andy Titterall and Dan Richmond are both former professional hookers.
Moore is finding the resulting detail of feedback in training to be beneficial.
“I’ve found it massively helpful because there are a few sets of eyes looking at stuff that’s position-specific to you, which is unusual at tighthead. It’s not everyday you get that sort of expertise.”
As for leaving Ireland, Moore says the fallout from his decision to leave for Wasps was actually tougher than the decision itself.
“I had pretty much made my peace with the decision. It was pretty much dealing with the bit of blowback after the decision had been made that was more difficult than coming to the decision.
“When I spoke to Dai myself, that sealed the deal. It wasn’t really a phone call for him to get me to commit to the club, and I don’t think he expected for me to make up my mind after that phone call.
“But I’d heard enough and knew enough about the man and the club to want to be part of it. The toughest was dealing with those few weeks post-making the decision.”
The IRFU clearly didn’t want a 25-year-old international tighthead exiting their system when he opted to leave Leinster, although Moore says an inter-provincial transfer “hadn’t crossed my mind and it hadn’t been an option really.”
Despite Joe Schmidt’s desire to see Moore stay at home, the tighthead says their relationship is still solid.
“There’s no bad blood between myself and the IRFU. It’s something that Joe was in the loop the whole time and he made himself available. That’s something I majorly respect, that he made himself available to meet up, sit down and also speak on the phone.
“Obviously, everyone’s not going to be happy. They would rather I was based in Ireland but at the same time I didn’t see it as feasible for me to stay where I was when I had the opportunity over here to play this sort of rugby and get the game time that I’m getting.
“It was an unfortunate situation in that he wants me to be a better player, but he also wanted me to be based in Ireland at least, if not Dublin. We agreed to disagree, but there was no bad blood or no arguments.”
Moore understands that he is going to have to play better rugby than he ever has to return to the Ireland mix, but then he points out that getting into the Wasps XV comes with the same requirement.
The former Lansdowne FC clubman played off the bench in each of Ireland’s 10 games during the 2014 and 2015 Six Nations successes, but he certainly feels nowhere near fulfilled in Test rugby.
“There are a lot of pretty good memories from playing for those couple of seasons for Ireland,” says Moore. “I hope that that’s not the last memories I’ll have of playing in a green jersey.
“For anyone to be involved in a Six Nations win is incredible and the fact that we did it back-to-back and to be part of that… but at the same time I made a point of saying to myself that I was part of the squad and got a bit of playing time, but I don’t really feel that they are my Six Nations championships.
“As a player, I feel that I was part of a greater squad and that I had a lot of involvement. But in my mind, I wanted to go away and become the player I want to be. In a few years time, sooner or later – I don’t know when that’s going to be – if I can do it as a starting tighthead, that would be my ambition.
“It’s a strange thing to say that. It was an enjoyable time and I have some great memories, and it was a great experience, but at the same time it doesn’t feel like I was going out there and winning a Six Nations.”
To be continued.
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