It’s a big practical and psychological fillip for the backs too.”So there has to be absolute concentration, all the time, because if you let that slip it’s not likely that the other lot will be having a rest.”People don’t understand the physical dynamics of scrummaging. It seems to be an amorphous mass of large people, but there’s a huge physical effort going on.”A lot of nonsense is talked about the mystique of the front row, but it is true that it’s a battle not only unique to this game, but unique within the game. Every time you go down, there’s a physical confrontation.”In an odd way it’s one of the blessings. Full-backs or wingers might not have a battle with their opposite number, but in the front row you know you will. If you’re a competitor and like that sort of thing, you’re guaranteed it.”Moore, whose England career spanned eight years and 64 internationals, was perhaps the ultimate competitor, and never enjoyed the ferocity of competition more than against the French. He played against them 10 times, on all but two occasions emerging triumphant.”They were great games,” he recalls. “You knew it would be an absolute war up front, and there was always a great atmosphere.

Sometimes it was unpleasant, sometimes joyous, but there was always an edge, especially at the old Parc des Princes. And I do consider the historic rivalry between England and France to be a factor in that.”He was, he says, hugely stirred on the short coach journey from the Petersham Hotel to Twickenham in 1991, when a speech from Kenneth Branagh’s version of Henry V was played over the loudspeaker.Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility:But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favoured rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect.A tad over the top for a pep talk before an encounter in a sports arena, you might think, but Moore thinks not. Indeed, as Henry, or rather Ken, delivered those words, he does not mind admitting that a tear or two plopped onto his ruddy cheeks. “It was one of [Will] Carling’s ideas, and it maybe went over some people’s heads, but I thought it was fantastically moving.

It captured a whole mood, and looking back I can remember where I was sitting in the coach, I can remember everything. You know how certain songs and things help you recreate a memory that is not just factual, it actually evokes tastes and smells, it’s like that.’His memories of journeys to Parc des Princes are almost as vivid.”In England when we had outriders, it just meant we were two cars further back in the traffic. In France we used to leave Versailles, and set off down the autoroute or whatever, at about 80 kilometres an hour, and we didn’t stop that pace until we got to the ground. The [French riot police] CRS, with an utter disregard for French citizens’ liberty, used to kick cars and bang on the roofs with batons if they didn’t get out of the way.” A huge chuckle. “Normally the forwards would sit at the back of the coach, but on those occasions we’d be at the front. It was much more exciting.”And, of course, the CRS tactics would continue, more or less, on the field of play. Moore was left in considerable pain when Dubrocca stamped on him back in 1987.”But I tried to pretend it didn’t hurt.