THE apple clearly does not fall very far from the tree in the Moriarty household.
When it was announced Paul Moriarty was joining Gloucester as defence coach at the fans forum back in the summer a wry chuckle trembled around the room.
The imposing Welshman made his name as a tough second row or back row forward who was never shy of a tackle, as demonstrated when switching codes to League.
The 48-year-old won 21 caps for his country in Union, helping them finish third and scoring a try in the 22-21 third place play-off victory over Australia at the 1987 World Cup.
A dual international, he went on to win the 1989 World Club Challenge for Widnes before playing in the 1995 and 2000 League World Cups before returning to Union.
It was in the time when Moriarty was plying his trade in the north of England when son Ross was born in 1994 in St Helens, a heartland of the 13-man code.
After moving to Swansea two years later, Ross grew up across the border in Wales and eventually joined the Ospreys, where he played between the age of 13 and 16.
It was ironic then that the young back-row forward made his senior debut for the Cherry and Whites at his boyhood club at a soggy Swansea last week.
Moriarty junior continued his physicality education against Fiji on Tuesday in his first Kingsholm appearance and has been rewarded with a bench spot against London Welsh today.
It is a remarkable transition considering the 18-year-old has not been playing in the backrow for very long.
If it were not for a chance match at full-back for the Ospreys at Hartpury then Moriarty may not have found himself running out at Kingsholm this afternoon at all.
His father Paul said: "There was a ruck on the halfway line and one of the Hartpury second rows took the ball up and came around the corner.
"Ross happened to be up in the defensive line from full-back from an earlier break and dump tackled the big lad backwards, right into the ground.
"The laws were a bit more relaxed then when it came to things like tip tackles, unlike nowadays.
"But it was a good hit and showed that he could really tackle, despite playing at full-back."
It was while in the 15 shirt that Moriarty learned the art of tackling, thanks to a number of one-on-one father-son coaching sessions.
There were no questions over Ross' ability, just his size, which was a surprise considering his father stands well over six feet.
Moriarty senior experienced a growth spurt in his youth and knew his son's was coming, and therefore made sure he had all the right attributes in place before he shot up.
That moment came aged 17, when he went from 5ft 11ins to the 6ft 3ins that he commands now, but there was another reason for the switch to the forwards which both men have in common.
When asked what the keys to a good defence are, the Gloucester coach answered: "Body positions and structures."
"The third is physicality," he added, with a large grin quickly spreading across his face.
"That is only down to a select few but a select few can make a hell of a difference.
"It's intimidation and physicality. It's all about physicality."
Hartpury student Moriarty shares his dad's love of the physical side of the game, and when asked why he made the switch he gave a recognisable reply.
"The physicality," he said.
"I have more fun there and just enjoy it there more.
"I like getting involved and I like being amongst all the rough stuff.
"I have to keep my head a bit more and I'm still getting used to playing backrow, but it's going well and I'm enjoying it.
"I don't really mind who I'm playing against. If you know what you're doing then it's a lot easier so it doesn't matter how big they are, I just get stuck in.
"I was always solid in defence, which is funny with my dad being a defence coach, so that helped – especially with making tackles from the full-back position.
"It's easier when you're among it all, you can't do it as much playing at full-back.
"But being small meant tackling big players was always easier at full-back.
"At Ospreys I was just doing development training and general skills and stuff like that but didn't play much rugby there.
"It didn't go too well for me until I came to Hartpury and that is where I started playing rugby a bit more and developed as a backrow player.
"Friday night was my first senior team appearance for Gloucester and it was a great experience down in Swansea where I am from, so it was not a bad place to start.
"I've just got to work on my confidence a bit more coming into a first-team environment.
"I know in my head that I can do things, but doing it in front of the bigger players, getting my confidence up and getting used to it will allow me to play a bit better.
"In two years I've grown a lot and gone to the gym a lot more and as a result I've put a lot of weight on.
"I think my dad was probably getting a little bit worried actually, that I was not going to get any bigger and that I was just going to stay as some little runt!"
