Northern Edition

Select Edition

Northern Northern
Southern Southern
Global Global
New Zealand New Zealand
France France

Early season surprise: Michael Hooper sheds captain's armband

(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has stood down as skipper of the NSW Waratahs, with Test lock Rob Simmons taking over the job.

ADVERTISEMENT

Openside flanker Hooper, who has been fulltime captain of the Tahs for the past four seasons, still intends to make himself available to be Wallabies skipper, a role he has held since August 2017.

Utility back Kurtley Beale is the Tahs new vice-captain.

Hooper said he had been thinking about his decision for around 18 months and had question marks about continuing to captain the Waratahs as well as the Wallabies.

“Doing both roles for some time it would be remiss of me to say it doesn’t have a taxing effect,” Hooper said.

Continue reading below…

Video Spacer

“There’s much more than just running out on the park, leading the team out on the weekend

“There’s performances of teams that weigh into it, there’s the media, all my friends.

“Having to speak every week is tough and trying to get the message right and represent the team as best as possible.

ADVERTISEMENT

“A big part of it is I’ve got another four years here and I want to make that four years really special and take my personal game and leadership to another level.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7ZaykoA1G9/

Asked about the Wallabies captaincy Hooper said “that’s a fair way away, but my thoughts around that have not changed.

“I still think I’ve got a lot of growing in myself, my gameplay and my captaincy.

“Those are conversations that (new Wallabies coach Dave Rennie) and myself will be having I’m sure in the future.”

Rennie watched Hooper and the Waratahs train on Wednesday.

Queenslander Simmons, who is in his third season with NSW after captaining the Reds during his time there, said: “I asked for some time to think about it and consulted the people I wanted to consult, in particular, my family, and came to the decision that I would like to do the job.”

ADVERTISEMENT

– AAP

The Waratahs have managed to secure the service of Rebels outside back Jack Maddocks:

Video Spacer
ADVERTISEMENT

LIVE

{{item.title}}

Trending on RugbyPass

Comments

0 Comments
Be the first to comment...

Join free and tell us what you really think!

Sign up for free
ADVERTISEMENT

Latest Features

Comments on RugbyPass

F
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
LONG READ
LONG READ Freddie Thomas: 'OMFG, I've been selected for Wales - my mum was bawling her eyes out' Freddie Thomas: 'OMFG, I've been selected for Wales - my mum was bawling her eyes out'
Search