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Michael Hooper defends Wallabies teammate after Eddie Jones comments
By
AAP
England are vowing to up the ante in test decider against the wounded Wallabies, saying they feel the series has been “tame” so far.
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With tensions mounting ahead of Saturday’s sold-out SCG showdown with the series all square, Wallabies halfback Nic White accused the visitors of an orchestrated campaign to use “niggle” to unsettle his team.
England coach Eddie Jones laughed when he heard White’s comments, branding him hypocritical.
“I hardly think he’s entitled to make that comment, he’s the biggest niggler of all time,” Jones said.
“That makes me laugh. The boy from Queanbeyan who niggles everyone, complaining about niggle – that’s a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.”
Wallabies skipper Michael Hooper defended his teammate with a back-handed compliment, calling him a rugby “nerd”.
“Whitey is just obsessed with rugby,” Hooper said on Friday.
“The guy is an absolute footy nerd. He just wants to play. He’s as competitive as you’ll see and he’ll be doing his usual thing.”
England forwards coach Richard Cockerill also denied there was a plan to use any grubby tactics, pointing out it was the home team who had lock Darcy Swain sent off for a head butt.
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“I keep hearing about the niggle that England have brought, I don’t know how Aussie rugby is but I don’t see that as particular niggle, it’s been pretty tame so far,” Cockerill said.
But he promised his team would be ramping up their physicality as they gunned for the series win.
England got on the front foot early in last week’s win in Brisbane, with prop Ellis Genge setting the tone when he ran over Hooper while he also man-handled White.
Cockerill said the Wallabies had talked themselves up and would look to rebound after being beaten in that area.
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“I expect them to come hard physically at us as they lost the physical battle early in the game last week so they’ll want to put that right,” he said.
“Everybody’s watched State of Origin so everybody wants to start the game like that so let’s see if we can do it.
We’ve got two teams playing for the Test series so we’re both going to be going at it.
“They’ve talked themselves up so and are going to come with more physicality so we’ve got the match that and more.
“We’re going to bring more physicality than last week because we know if we do that, it puts us in the best best place to win the game.”
