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Waratahs unveil new captain for pre-season clash against Highlanders
By Online Editors
Karmichael Hunt is happy to take on more responsibility as he prepares to lead the NSW Waratahs after his first "decent" Super Rugby pre-season in several years.
With several senior backs having left NSW, including Wallabies Bernard Foley, Nick Phipps, Adam Ashley-Cooper and Curtis Rona, Hunt will inevitably assume more of a leadership role this season.
"In terms of my age and experience and being a bit older than the other guys, it's sort of been a natural progression," said Hunt who will captain NSW against the Highlanders tonight at Leichhardt Oval.
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Hunt appreciated the faith being shown in him after acknowledging some self-inflicted off-field blows, which included receiving fines and suspensions after pleading guilty to drug possession charges in 2015 and 2018.
"I've done a lot of hard yards. I've had a few downfalls over the years of my own accord which has been well documented," he said.
"But I've got off the deck and just try and continue to get better as a footy player and as a person."
The six-test Wallabies' back suffered a medial ligament knee injury last May which cut short his impressive first Super Rugby campaign with NSW and effectively culled any World Cup aspirations.
He played some Sydney club rugby but was rested from the NRC. The extra rehab has put him in fine fettle for the coming season.
"It was like pre-season on top of a pre-season. It was worthwhile - I feel great," Hunt said.
"There's no issue with the knee. Conditioning-wise, I'm back to full fitness.
"It's probably the first decent pre-season I've had in a few years, having missed out in Queensland (before the 2018 season).
"Rolling into the Tahs after Christmas (2018), a couple of weeks before the (2019) season started, I didn't have the greatest base, obviously."
"We've lost a lot of experience but it's an exciting horizon, I think for us," Hunt said.
"With Rob bringing in a new game plan for us to utilise and put a bit more trust back into the boys to play what they see."
Although capable of playing multiple positions including fullback, Hunt is set to play primarily at inside centre, where he had spent most of last season.
"All my footy has been training at 12. There's been no discussions otherwise," Hunt said.
Hunt, halfback Jake Gordon and prop Tom Robertson are the only Wallabies picked to face the Highlanders, while former Parramatta NRL forward Tepei Moeroa's debut will be delayed as he is sick.
AAP
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Latest Comments
Turn it up. Give me your john A game would ya!
Go to commentsI didn't really get the should tone from it, but maybe because I was just reading it as my own thoughts.
What I read it as was examples of how they played well enough in every game to be able to win it.
Yeah I dunno if Ben wouldn't see it that way (someone else would for sure need to point it out to him though), I'm more in the Ben not appreciating that those close losses werent one off scenarios camp. Sure you can look at dubious decisions causing them to have to play with 14 or 13 men at the death as viable reasons but even in the games they won without such difficulties they made a real struggle of it (compared to how good some of their first half play was). This kind of article where you trying to point out the 3 losses really would most likely have been wins only really makes sense/works when your other performances make those 3 games (or endings) stand out.
There might have been a sentence here and there to ensure some good comment numbers but when he's signing off the article by saying things like ..
and..
I don't really see it. Always making sure people are upto date with the SH standing/perspective! NZ went through some tough times with so many different perspectives and reasons why, but then it was.. amusing how.. behind everyone was once they turned a corner. More of these 'unfortunate' results returned against SA and France at the start of the RWC which made it extra tasty to catch other teams out when they did bring it. So that created some 'conscious' perspective that I just kept going and sharing re thoughts on similar predicaments of other teams, I had been really confident that Wallabies displays vs NZ were real, that the Argentines can backup their thing against Aus and SA (and so obviously the rest), and current one is that England are actually consistent and improving with their attack (which everyone should get onboard with), and I'm expecting a more dominant display against Japan (even though they should have more of their experienced internationals for this one) that highlights further growth from July. 👍
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