Super Rugby
Mowen, Moore deny squealing on team-mates
ESPN Staff
March 12, 2014
Australia's Ben Mowen shouts at team-mates, Australia v Argentina, The Rugby Championship, Patersons Stadium, Perth, September 14, 2013
Ben Mowen was accused of 'dobbing' players in during the 'Dublin drinking dramas' © Getty Images
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Ben Mowen and Stephen Moore deny 'dobbing' on Wallabies team-mates after the 'Dublin drinking games' on the end-of-season tour of your last year, the pair speaking publicly for the first time about the reports as the pre-game war between the Brumbies and New South Wales Waratahs ramps up ahead of their Super Rugby fixture in Canberra on Saturday.

The Brumbies leaders are front and centre of speculation this week that they told Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie of breaches of team protocols in Dublin last November, after Greg Growden reported for ESPN at the time that Mowen was believed to have alerted the coach.

Wallabies management and some players denied at the time that players had been 'dobbed in' by team-mates for staying out, but Growden reported a different story in Ruck'n Maul and wrote subsequently that this weekend's Brumbies-Waratahs fixture "could be the match for important get-squares after some unsavoury off-field incidents during the Wallabies' end-of-season European tour last year".

Reports have emerged that Mowen and Moore will be players of focus for the Tahs this Saturday, because the 'Dublin XV' featured eight New South Wales players expected to start in Canberra - namely Dave Dennis, Adam Ashley-Cooper, Benn Robinson, Tatafu Polota-Nau, Paddy Ryan, Kane Douglas, Bernard Foley and Nick Phipps - but McKenzie denied that he reprimanded and suspended the players after the incident in Ireland only after being alerted by Mowen.

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"No player dobbed in any other player in Dublin," McKenzie said on Monday.

And now Mowen has rejected the reports, saying: "That's not part of who I am. I've no problem with you asking the question because I don't do that sort of stuff."

Brumbies vice-captain Moore also said he didn't pay attention to his being mentioned as a target for the Waratahs.

"It's unfortunate that it's come up again this week, but personally it's not been an issue for me," Moore said. "It has flared up again this week and there was stuff written last year as well but Ewen has made it pretty clear how it all panned out. There is certainly no ill-feeling between any of us and any of the Waratahs. They want to win the conference and so we do we, and that's where it starts and ends."

Waratahs captain Dave Dennis sparked the latest round of speculation on Monday, when he told News Corp with reference to the Dublin incident that "there were guys there who were disappointed with how things went".

Moore said when asked if the reports were driven by somebody trying to stir things up a bit: "Well I guess it has to be doesn't it? But I think Ewen has made it pretty clear how it all panned out. There's certainly no ill feeling amongst any of us or any of the Waratahs."

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