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He’s the youngest Wallabies captain in more than half a century.
But Michael Hooper says he’s not fussed about years – he plays rugby by the minute.
“I haven’t been able to sit back and look back at any of the year so far,” Hooper said.
“They way rugby is at the moment, you move week to week and you enjoy every minute of it.”
Hooper became the youngest player to captain the Wallabies since 1961 in June this year after Stephen Moore suffered an injury.
Next Saturday, he’ll try to break another long-running record by scoring a win against the Springboks in Cape Town.
The last time Australia won at Newlands was 1992 – when Hooper was just one year old.
For his part, the “kid-captain” is looking forward to a bit of hometown jeering from the South Africans.
“You turn up on the bus and people are yelling at you and all the rest of it,” he said.
“It’s a really cool environment.”
But Hooper knows coming up against the Springboks at Newlands will be a tough assignment, despite the Wallabies clinching a 24-23 win over the side in Perth earlier this year.
“It’s a hard place to play. They love to play,” he said.
“You need to go there and be ready to play really tough rugby.”
An added threat is Japan-based flanker Schalk Burger, called up to the Spingkboks after Francois Luow suffered a neck injury.
Burger is almost a decade older than Hooper, but the young Australian isn’t daunted.
“(It’s) really exciting. As a backrower, you want to beat the best backrowers in the world,” he said.
“Whether they start him, we’ll wait and see.”
In the meantime, Hooper said the Australian team were just focusing on preparing themselves for the remaining Rugby Championships Tests with a solid training camp in Sydney before flying out on Monday.
That said, he knows even the best laid plans can go astray.
“Well we had a great week’s preparation against the All Blacks and that didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to,” he said of the 51-20 shellacking in August.
“Whatever the recipe is, I haven’t completely touched on it.”
In that regard, he’s got time on his side.
And while he’s sporting a full blonde mop now, Hooper knows he might be losing hairs after a few more months in the top job.
“Maybe at the end of the year, I’ll look back and see how much I’ve aged.”
Join The Roar rugby editor Christy Doran, former Wallaby Matt Toomua and a cast of regular and special guests as they look at the biggest issues in the game on The Roar Rugby Podcast. If you’re looking for great odds on the next game check out Aussie bookmaker PlayUp. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.