ST ETIENNE – “It was great. Winners’ piss is better than losers’ piss.” That is how Tom Hooper summed up beating Georgia and winning in gold for the first time in five attempts as a Wallaby.
You can take the boy out of Bathurst and all that… and what a journey he appears to be on.
The 22 year has pimp walked from rom the public bar to the VIP section this year, a big honest toiler of a player with a personality perfectly in sync with Eddie Jones, despite the 41 year age gap between the two.
He gives Jones what the veteran coach needs – which is 100 percent commitment to executing the coach’s plans, the ability to soak up his frustrations when they boil over, and to make him laugh.
“He’s still the same old Eddie, he’ll never change,” Hooper said in the way you might joke about a cranky grandpa.
“He had me down there doing a couple of tackles before. He said ‘Hoops, (have) you made a good tackle yet today’?
“So he got into me and then I was running into big Langi (Gleeson) – and God he can run and tackle – and Eddie said ‘Mate, you gotta pretend like you’re running to the Oberon bottle shop, which is my local. So yeah, he still is up my backside, making sure I’m doing the hard yards. It’s good, I love it, that’s how we’re gonna get better. “
Tom Hooper. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Jones had words, kind ones it seems, to Hooper after the youngster took over lineout call duty in the second half at Stade de France. On Wednesday, Hooper completely owned his leading role in the mess that unfolded.
“I’ve got to chuck my hand up there and and cop that one on the chin. But, you know, I’m a young player and Eddie was really good,” said Hooper.
“He came up to me after the game and said it was an unfamiliar role for me and definitely throughout the course of this World Cup, I’m not going to be first choice lineout caller, but I might find myself back there.
“So it’s something we’ve put a lot of work on throughout this week, we’ll continue to work on and if I’m in that position again, I’m sure myself and the hooker will have a better combination and resolve that.”
The match ended with flankers Hooper and Rob Leota packed in the second row.
“It’s great to have that versatility, but it’s a combination that we need to work on. And another one was just an absolute brain fart from me when I almost headbutted Robbie Valetini and they won it clean.
“So it’s combinations, time in the saddle and then just good calling from me.”
Would he welcome another crack?
“Definitely, hit the nail on the head next time!”
Hooper has a towering personality to match his 1.99m frame. It left reporters in stitches and coach Jason Ryles and teammate Suli Vunivalu shaking their heads at the team’s media conference in St Etienne on Wednesday. What the local French reporters made of the Hooper circus is anyone’s guess.
“So it was good. Got a couple of beers, got around the boys,” Hooper continued in his recap of last Saturday night.
“Obviously we weren’t getting too ahead of ourselves, but it’s important to celebrate those and connect as a team. I had a beer or two with Suli on the night. And then we tucked each other into bed and we’re onto the next job,” said Hooper. Vunivalu looked completely bemused.
There was more. Much more. And hopefully more for years to come.
Asked if he felt the difference playing in a World Cup, compared to his previous four Tests, he replied: “Like if you asked me, obviously I knew there was 75,000 people watching on the weekend. But if you asked me it out there I wouldn’t have been able to tell you.
“You know, there were a couple of blokes in budgie smugglers and I didn’t even see them. I would have had a chuckle in the game if I saw that.”
Nick Frost and Tom Hooper of the Wallabies during a school visit in Saint-Etienne, France. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
About meeting his skipper, Will Skelton, Hooper described him in a way that a writer can only applaud as perfection: “I’ve never felt so small when I met him. My hand felt like a baby’s hand.”
Hooper is devouring the experience of his first World Cup on the inside of the field.
“It’s awesome. It’s what I’ve been doing my whole life watching the Rugby World Cup, I’ve just got to prepare for a game as well. That’s the only real difference. It’s great to watch, isn’t it?
“That Fiji game, I think the walls in our hotel are paper thin because I could hear the boys scream when Semi (Radradra) dropped that ball, so obviously a couple of boys are going for Fiji.”
It seems his form on the pool table might not be as sharp as his wit.
“I’ve lost a bit of money on pool, which yeah, my missus won’t be too happy about. But that’s all right, I’ll win it back. That’s what every gambler says. We’ve just been playing a bit pool, just a bit of fun and games. Boys have a dartboard out there. So just low-key stuff really, just connecting. It’s good.”
If I’d come in cold to meet Hooper, knowing he was an athlete but not of which sport, I would choose surfer, or snowboarder, as a wildcard. But while his personality doesn’t immediately scream rugby, we have seen his type before.
There is more than a touch of Nick the Honey Badger Cummins about Hooper, although he nearly blushed when I asked him if he was a fan. It was like asking him if he saw a bit of his No.6 role model Scott Fardy in himself.
“No, he’s got a lot better quotes than I do. I’ve got a couple of his tucked up my sleeve, but I can’t claim them as my own,” said Hooper.
He turned to Ryles, who at one stage in the press conference, wondered aloud, how he was meant to follow Hooper’s rapid one liners. “What is it? A one-arm bricklayer in Baghdad?”
Ryles interjected: “He’s got them every day, every time he walks past you there’s a different one.”
“I’m not as country as [Cummins],” said Hooper. “He’s a lot more country. Big Ned Hanigan is even more country than me. Some of the boys say they can’t even understand him. I’m not that country. Just Bathurst, it’s not that far out.”
Tony Harperhttps://https://ift.tt/KQmwoTr Badger 2.0: Tom Hooper takes centre stage with a blizzard of one liners and candid self reflection
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