Lewis ' Mad Dog' Moody - scourge of nervous full-backs, fearless ruck rampager, king of the kamikaze charge-down - has an unexpected confession to make: he's scared of spiders.
"I honestly used to hate them," he says. "I'd dread seeing one. The lads used to love it - they'd find a spider in the changing-room and chase me round the room with it, put one in my boots. I had to go on an arachnophobia course, where they made me hold a tarantula. I had to sort something out or they'd have teased me forever."
It doesn't end there. While he's now OK with smaller spiders ("I can pick up the baby ones") there's also his terror of heights.
"Before the last World Cup we trained with the Marines down in Poole, and they did a high-wires course with us. Ooof! We had to climb up a telegraph pole and stand on this tiny piece of wood at the top. Four of you had to do it, all stand on this bit of wood, and I remember just clinging to Ben Kay. Clinging to him."
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England's purple new kit, we were told before the Argentina match, was the most advanced rugby kit ever - 27% lighter than the last one, specially designed to make them harder to tackle and fleeter of foot.
If that's really true, we can only be grateful they weren't wearing the old one. Saturday wasn't so much the start of a new purple patch for English rugby as a mauve mess. While other teams develop and improve, England appear to be a side marooned.
"A win's a win," goes the old sporting adage, but the 75,000 people at Twickenham who witnessed the 16-9 squeak past a spirited Argentine side might feel like disagreeing. This was a performance so dispiriting that some England fans didn't know whether to boo or sob.
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On a cold November day 19 years ago, England took on Argentina at Twickenham and dished out a 51-0, seven-try spanking. History, you can confidently wager, is unlikely to repeat itself this Saturday.
In a country where soccer has always dominated, Argentine rugby football is in the ascendant. Two places higher than England in the world rankings, coming off two wins in their last three against the hosts and with their best players in demand at the game's richest clubs, this generation of Pumas will not roll over and have their bellies tickled.
That Argentina's rugby team could be more successful on the international stage than its football team represents one of the more remarkable stories in sport. And it is not something that has happened by accident.
"Rugby has been growing worldwide, but in Argentina it's probably grown more than anywhere else," says Felipe Contepomi, one of the key men in Argentina's wonderful run to third place in the last World Cup.
"We now have a club structure in place that is almost unbelievable. It's probably one of the strongest set-ups in the world."
Former England and Leicester scrum-half Les Cusworth was assistant coach to Manuel Loffreda during the World Cup and is currently head of the country's new high-performance programme.
"The strength of the game here now is phenomenal," he says. "There are 60,000 people regularly playing the game, 400 Argentines involved in professional rugby at some level in Europe and over 80 thriving clubs in Buenos Aires alone. The club game is booming.
"It's the best amateur league in the world. The sacrifice and passion of the players, coaches and officials is unmatched."
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I'm Tom Fordyce and I cover cricket, rugby, tennis, athletics and - well, most sports except monkey-tennis. You can also follow me on 
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