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David Pocock hints at embarking on political career following international rugby retirement

David Pocock walks off the pitch in Oita following Australia's loss to England. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Before he turns climate crusader, retiring great David Pocock says he’d be only too happy to offer his opinion on the next Wallabies coach.

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While gutted to have bowed out of international rugby with Saturday’s 40-16 loss to England in the Rugby World Cup quarter-finals, Pocock is adamant he won’t be adding to his 83 Tests in the gold jumper, declaring his battered body has had enough after more than a decade at the top level.

“It certainly takes its toll. You pick up injuries along the way and some of them linger longer than others,” Pocock said.

“I feel like I’ve put a huge amount into rugby in Australia and I’ve got a lot back in return and really feel like it’s time to move on to other things and contribute in other ways.”

The avid conservationist and human rights campaigner isn’t ruling out a future in politics after formally hanging up the boots following the last season of his three-year stint with Wild Knights in Japan.

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“I’m interested in a bunch of things outside rugby. The political landscape at the moment is fairly uninspiring when it comes to climate change and those sorts of things, so we’ll wait and see,” he said.

“I’ll have a bit of time to think about it now, then I’ve got the six months in Japan. After that we’ll see. For me, issues around climate change, ecological crisis … there’s plenty to do. I’ll find something and get stuck in.”

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Pocock, who has a Bachelor of Ecological Agricultural Systems degree to his credit, admits he’ll miss “parts” of professional rugby.

“There’s something really special about being part of a group that’s so focused on something bigger than themselves, but I’ll be looking to find that elsewhere,” he said.

The champion flanker remains fiercely loyal to Michael Cheika, one of his key allies who signed off on his controversial year-long sabbatical from the game in 2017, and wasn’t impressed by former schoolmate and Wallabies teammate Quade Cooper’s parting shot at the coach.

“If he actually cared about Aus rugby he would have done it a while ago,” Cooper tweeted after Cheika quit his post on Sunday.

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“As players I think we always find it disappointing when people on the outside are taking pot shots,” Pocock said.

“There is a huge amount of work that’s gone in and ‘Cheik’ is the kind of guy who goes into bat for his players behind the scenes.

“He is always wanting guys to just focus on their rugby and you can’t please everyone. Everyone has different opinions.

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“I have a huge amount of time for Quade. We go way back. But people are going to say what they want, especially when you fall short like we did.

“There is no excuses. We prepared well. We just weren’t good enough on the night.”

Pocock wouldn’t be drawn on who Cheika’s successor should be, but said he’d offer input on the matter if asked.

“Mate as a player, you’re happy to. You’re always happy to give your thoughts and opinions,” he said.

“That’s just a little part of the bigger picture of the strategy going forward and how things are going to look in terms of the structure of coaching in Australia.”

AAP

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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