A first cap is always a moment to cherish, but for Ben Moon a prospective Test debut on Saturday is particularly special. With his 30th birthday on the horizon the popular Exeter prop was beginning to think it might not happen; after a decade of loyal club service he is set to be among five Chiefs in the matchday squad to face South Africa.
Barring a late twist, Moon may well feature off the bench behind his Exeter teammate Alec Hepburn but for everyone at the Chiefs and his junior club, Cullompton RFC, that is an incidental detail. Finally there is to be a historic Moon landing at Twickenham, 10 years after he played alongside Ben Youngs, Courtney Lawes and Jamie George at under-20 level.
Despite his long-time role in Exeter’s steady domestic rise, Moon initially thought it was a wind-up when he was called up as loosehead cover for the injured Mako Vunipola and the now-retired Joe Marler.
“My first reaction was to think it was all a bit of a joke. Henry Slade was messaging and ringing me saying [the team manager] Richard Hill was trying to get hold of me. You think: ‘Yeah, of course he is.’”
A combination of poor mobile phone reception in rural Devon and motorway traffic jams also combined to make his journey to England’s training camp unusually stressful.
“I was actually at a kids’ party and I had no signal. There was a bouncy castle there and I was having a great time. When I finally walked out my phone was going mad and there was an unfamiliar number on it. I thought: ‘Maybe Sladey isn’t taking the mick.’
“My wife was at a friend’s baby shower and she had no signal either so I couldn’t get hold of her. Maybe I should have sent a pigeon or something. It was half-two on a Sunday and some of the lads were already at the camp so it was a mad rush to find my boots and other bits and pieces. I was panicking.
“They told me not to worry but I got caught in traffic on the M5. I was sat there thinking: ‘Don’t be late.’ My phone battery was dying, my satnav was on my phone and I was thinking: ‘Oh, no, this is all going to go terribly wrong.’”
Happily he made it and his strength as a scrummager and lineout lifter – he competed in local young farmers’ tug-of-war events in his younger days – has rapidly been noted by his new teammates during the squad’s time in Portugal. “I’ve always said he’s one of the most underrated players in our team,” his Exeter colleague Jack Nowell said. “If you speak to boys here like Kyle Sinckler, when they’ve scrummaged against him they say he’s one of the best they’ve come up against.”
Nowell,who also joked that Moon, a durable pillar within Exeter’s pack since their distant Championship days, must have somehow doctored the date of birth listed in his passport. “Apparently he’s still in his 20s but he seems to have been playing for 20 years. He’s the oldest 29-year-old around.” Harry Williams, his fellow Chiefs prop who also coaches at Cullompton, is another firm fan: “He is a very straight-down-the-line, genuine geezer. A good Devonshire lad. I couldn’t say enough good things about Ben and he’s a decent rugby player as well.”
It is now up to Moon to seize his prized opportunity. “I’m 30 next year and you do wonder if your international window is slowly closing. But there are some players who start their international careers in their early 30s so you think: ‘Why not?’”
Eclipsing a powerful Springboks pack on Saturday will be far from easy but England’s seasoned Devonian debutant will relish his belated day in the sun.
