With so many changes to the squad in recent years, there has been a disconnect between the national team and Australian sports fans tuning in for this World Cup.
. The new captain is a softly spoken giant. Born in NZ. When he was still in his teens you’d get no change from 150 kilograms, but he has now slimmed down to a block of flats, a mere 140 kilograms. The idea of Eddie Jones in making him captain was to have someone who could bring the Wallabies together, a natural leader, and it seems to be working.
When I was chatting to former All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen at Wallabies training a fortnight ago – after he’d been brought in by Eddie to survey the team – he mentioned the importance of players knowing and liking each other as friends. And of course, he’s right. You’re not just 15 professionals brought together for a task, you are one, you are a unit, Shakespeare’s “band of brothers”.
The English ref, Luke Pearce, was about to go upstairs to the TMO before noting Tupou’s lack of celebration: “You’ve lost it forward, have you?”Tupou: “No”You get the drift. If Tupou was a cricketer, he’d be Adam Gilchrist: extraordinarily polyvalent skills, and if he snicked it, he’d walk immediately..
Hooper – no relation to the Wallabies captain of the last few years Michael – fulfils all three roles in one. I don’t know him personally, but he and his partner in crime in the back row, Fraser McReight, were outstanding against Georgia for their tackling, ball-work, support play and taking the ball up. Tom Decent did a“I loved growing up with my mates playing footy,” Hooper, 22, said of growing up on the land near Bathurst. “There were sausage sizzles on a Friday night.
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