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Northampton lock Alex Moon is targeting a place at the 2023 World Cup after being inspired by seeing Alex Coles and Dave Ribbans play for England.
His team-mates appeared for England in the Autumn Internationals.
And Moon, 26, believes that if he can now surpass them at club level, there is a chance he could make the squad for next year’s World Cup in France.
“Colesy’s been playing awesome now for a year and a half and Dave has for four years,” he told BBC Radio Northampton.
“It lets you know that selection is open and if you outperform those boys at the club, the selectors are going to see that. The opportunity is there and it does light a fire under your backside a little bit.”
Moon played international rugby at under-20 level and has been selected for past England camps, without being given a chance in the senior side.
“Whenever I was in camp, I didn’t get to play and so you look at it and go ‘oh, I’d love to be there right now, I wish that was me’.
“During the off-season, I had a discussion with my family and girlfriend and we looked forward to the World Cup and said that’s a clear goal to strive towards. Let’s work our way towards that.”
‘Being lighter lets me do more work’
Moon has made 85 appearances for Saints, 10 of them this season, and believes losing some weight has enabled him to get back to his best.
“Over the last couple of years I was heading in the wrong direction in terms of the player I was trying to be. I got too carried away with being a heavy tighthead lock and I was playing at 128 kilos and trying to be a Joe Launchbury or a Will Skelton and that’s not really my game,” he said.
“I lost a stone. I’m now the lightest I’ve been since 2019-2020 and it’s allowed me to get through so much more work and I’ve not lost the collision aspect of it, which I thought I was going to lose.
“My buzz words going in to games has been ‘be fast’, move across the line-out fast, get into mauls fast, get into rucks fast and that takes out any over-thinking that I used to have in my game. It allows me to play instinctively and just go and do stuff.”
Northampton return to Premiership action on Saturday when they face Gloucester at Kingsholm.
They are fourth in the table but have scored more points – 260 – than any side apart from leaders Saracens. However, their 280 conceded is the highest in the league.
Moon, though, has no concerns about their expansive style.
“I’m in the entertainment industry at the end of the day. People pay the money to watch our product on the field. It’s the same as an actor, it’s the same as a singer,” he added.
“I don’t think we set off at the beginning of each week to be the most entertaining team of all time, we set off to play our shape because we know it works, and do what we do at scrum and line-out because it works, and our D set-up, and it just ends up creating entertaining games off the back of it.”
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