Wales vs England: Late bloomer Ben Moon taking pressure replacing Mako Vunipola in his stride

By all accounts, this is the biggest game of Ben Moon’s life. Exeter’s must-win Champions Cup clash with Munster was big, and the 2017 Premiership final triumph over Wasps was even bigger, but this is different. In only his sixth international appearance, the loosehead prop will be tasked with not only taking on Wales in a Six Nations Grand Slam eliminator, but he must fill the void left by Mako Vunipola.

Only four months ago, Moon was jetting out to the Algarve still an uncapped Exeter prop, drafted in by Jones after a wave of injuries and retirements in the loosehead department. Slowly but surely, those players have returned: Vunipola and Ellis Genge, Alec Hepburn and in the near-future Beno Obano.

But Moon is no longer England's last resort. He has forced his way up the pecking order, and when Vunipola was struck down with a campaign-ending ankle injury against France, it was Moon who Eddie Jones called upon.

The 29-year-old is certainly a late-bloomer when it comes to international rugby, but he has taken to it like a duck to water – or a prop to scrummaging. At the height of it all, on and off the pitch, is the way that Moon has taken it all in his stride, and that coolness will be put to the ultimate test on Saturday by facing Wales on their own turf.

“I do tend to stay fairly calm,” Moon said. “You do get a bit of nerves from the warm-up leading up to kick-off but I like to think I’m pretty good, pretty calm.”

Perhaps Moon isn’t the right person to ask about his rapid rise to prominence, given the modesty with which he conducts himself. In that regard, it is worth paying attention to what his coaches say about him.

“Losing Mako is tough for the team because he is such a good player, but we have two great replacements in Moon and Genge and we will get a great 80 minutes out of them,” Jones said this week. “At the start of the game, Ben Moon is an industrious player, he tackles well.”

Scrum coach Neil Hatley added: “I talked to him a bit previously about being a glue player, he just gets on and knows what his job is, gets on with it with very little fuss. He’s knows he’s got to perform well at the set-piece and then he’s got a role to play in defending – he defended really well in the autumn. I thought he defended really well again when he came on against France at the weekend, and then he’s got to clean rucks. Eddie called him a coal miner, that’s probably a great description for Moony. There’s very little fuss about him, he gets on with his job and he does it extremely well.

“We’ve watched him play in a very good Exeter pack against good sides in Europe, we’ve been tracking him along with Alec, so (I’m) not massively surprised. I thought how quickly he came in and adapted was outstanding but watching him week-in, week-out and speaking to his coaches down at Exeter, speaking to the players that he plays with and plays against, now I’ve got to know him more and see how he operates, I’m not that surprised at all.”

The coal miner tag certainly appears to have stuck within the squad, but in true Ben Moon fashion, he just brushes it off. “No jokes about it, nor deep holes. Same thing, different day.” It’ll take some nerve to treat a Six Nations showdown with Wales as the “same thing, different day”, but then so far in his young international career, Moon has shown nerves of steel.