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Dave Rennie clarifies the plan for Wallabies captaincy with Hooper returning
By Ben Smith
The Wallabies have been boosted by the return of Michael Hooper, the most capped Wallaby captain of all-time, for their Spring tour of Europe.
Dave Rennie's side will need Hooper's presence for a gruelling five test tour with matches against Scotland, France, Italy, Ireland and Wales scheduled.
They will face the top two ranked sides in the world in France and Ireland while they will look to reverse 2021's results against Scotland and Wales after losing to them both last year.
Rennie was just happy to have the experience of the 30-year-old openside flanker back in the fold despite not returning as captain.
"It's great news from our perspective, he's really excited to be travelling and playing again," Rennie told media at his press conference.
"He's done a lot of work over the last wee while and been training with our Sydney based boys for the last couple of weeks.
"He were keen for him to come in and just focus on himself.
"You know with a player like that, he'll lead from outside the leadership group. But we just want him focusing on himself at the moment."
Questions swirled around Hooper's captaincy, a role he has held since 2017 when hooker Stephen Moore retired from the international game.
He passed George Gregan's record as the most capped Wallabies captain in 2021.
The Wallabies coach stopped short of saying that Hooper's time as captain was over, and he expected that the No 7 would influence the squad in the same way that flyhalf Quade Cooper did last year.
"No, I wouldn't say that [his time is done]," he said.
"Obviously, Slips [James Slipper] has taken over that role the last few tests and he'll continue to do so.
"He's a good man, Slips has got a huge amount of respect within the group.
"Like I said, Hoops' job is just to come in and play well.
"What we know is he will lead from example. He'll contribute from outside that leadership group and that's really important to us.
"When we've had guys like Quade Cooper in the group, the quality of the people outside of the leadership group is influential.
"I'm sure he will contribute massively anyway."
Rennie explained that the plan agreed upon was to allow Hooper to come back in and focus on his own game without the pressure of leading the team and the external duties required with the armband.
"It's something we discussed awhile back, that when he came back in, having the chance to focus on him," he said.
"We will assess things as they go, but we are happy with the contributions Slips is making."
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Watching the last few rounds of the PWR, my feeling was that the opposition is a factor in selection. Kildunne does have weaknesses in her positioning for kicks, and was caught out of position on long kicks several times - there aren’t that many female kickers who can put up a long ball with a lot of accuracy, and I don’t think she’s used to facing them.
Sing is much more in the mould of a traditional fullback from the men’s game, both in terms of fielding kicks and sending them back, and I can see a role for her if England are facing a strong team with a powerful kicking game. She doesn’t offer the attacking threat that Kildunne does, but when you can also field Dow and Breach, you don’t necessarily need a running threat from all of your back three.
Go to commentsI think when you think of expanding the game you need to look at countries like Spain.
Their improvement in 7s and 15s has been significant. If you can breakthrough in Spain then that is a seismic moment for world rugby. But will world rugby see this? Or continue with its money making agenda for Tier1s via ‘Nations Cups’ and it’s Mickey Mouse ‘World Cup’ which has been hithero a boasting rights tournament for a couple of teams.
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