From skipper to subbie: Hooper to be hooked

And drop Steven Moore? You must be joking! Pocock has never even played hooker before! Hoopers days are numbered, Pocock is already close to his best, peeps have just forgotten how good he actually is. I agree with the sentiment that the best player should have the 7 jersey and if that is Hooper then good luck to him, but my money is well and truly on Pocock!

After watching the Force nail the Tahs to the wall, Alcock showed Hooper how effective a seven needs to be. Hodgson, Pocock, Alcock, Gill, Hooper.

If he cant make the Wallaby team then how can he be rated as one of the worlds best players. The logic escapes me.

Hooper may be one of the worlds best players, which I personally think is optimistic, however he is not the best no 7 when Pocock is fit. Therefore Hooper should not be captain or starting

Agree, Izzy should go to 12 or 13, probably 12. 13 is taken by Kuridrani and 12 defence is simpler to learn. Time to learn the spot and set up offload combos with Tahs back 4.

Yep bundle up some more sub-prime mortgages and flog 'em off to the highest bidder and collect your commissions. That seems to be the mentality that pervades rugby in Australia. Beat the darkness and win the RWC and all will be just peachy and to hell with the ordinary punter. It doesn't matter how we get there does it? Short-termism at its strident best. My non support of Hooper has got nothing to do with state boundaries. Still he is not the test 7 we need. But above all and for various reasons he simply fails the character test along with the following: Giteau (somewhere overseas, who cares) Cooper (Reds) JOC (Reds) Genia (Reds, and fast developing a bad attitude) Horwill (as above) Beale (Waratahs) AAC (Waratahs) List not exhaustive.

Foley took the money like Sexton did. Sexton was a late bloomer like Foley so didn't have a lump of money behind him like O'Connell and O'Driscoll did as they were capped at a younger age which helps with their tax rebate too. He was on a low contract when he broke in to the test team and subbed in a lot of games. That contract only finished a couple of seasons ago. Séan O'Brien was in the same boat with his contract.

Apparently Douglas is only on €140,000 a season at Leinster and that is an increase on what he was getting at the Tarts. No wonder he left.

I would rather have my locks hit rucks rather than carry. Paul O'Connell is a good example of this.

And have a shave

I'll just put last nights red v brumbies result here then. Pocock will run on with Hooper on the bench. But I suspect it will be a little like smith v Waugh, with both getting regular game time. Hooper is too good around the field to leave him out of even mostly benched.

Pocock should get the nod ahead of hooper if his form builds off last night. Retaining the ball in the group stages has to high on our priority list and as good as hooper he leadership isn't at pococks level yet. In my opinion toomua is our best 10 and although this takes away a good centre I think we have options here. Folau was at his best before the opposition worked him out. A suprise selection would give the opposing sides very little time to study his game and I see his inexperience working to our advantage. Toomua can kick and maximising our field possession will take pressure off some of our weaknesses in the forwards. Karmichel is very green but he has a great boot and the bloke can play. Folaus a big body and I believe his attacking game would improve without the extra responsibility of fullback. Fortune favours the bold!

why do you want to know what he said to admin? his public comment is what raised that particular question mark regarding his suitability as captain. personally i found it disappointing for an organisation leader to offer support to the perpetrator of the sexual harassment over the victim particularly before the hearing. sure hes a mate but once you become leader you have responsibility to the organisation (and those in it) beyond your mates

Only the ruck stats are mine eJ. The tackle stats are those provided by those who get paid to produce them. I made no comment on whether Hodgson was good enough to oust the incumbent. My stats were provided to show how he went vs Macmahon in the game against the Barbarians.

That's a pretty twisted reply to an almost correct analysis of the situation! I don't think that Hooper fails to complement the other 22. But I do think that the Wallabies haven't had a balanced set of loose forwards over the past 12 months. Hooper, at his best in Gold, played alongside Scott Fardy and Ben Mowen. Both copped constant criticism of their performances. They weren't making enough metres. But what we effectively had was a balanced back three, who'd spent a lot of time playing together and understood each other. We had a combination - the 2013 Brumbies (given BamBam got injured). We didn't have a power player, we had a pace player, Hooper. We had a breakdown thief in Mowen, and we had a workhorse in Fardy. They brought out the best in each other. Think back to how effective they were on the 2013 EOYT, and the great ball our backs then received. Then, think about who Hooper played with at the Tahs. Dennis, Palu, Hoiles, Potgeiter. With Cheik's focus on hard running, and the fact it was the second season, it balanced out. Now, think about the guys he played with in the Wallabies last year. There wasn't the same consistency. We ended up with Fardy being played out wide when fit, we often saw none of our loose forwards as first over the attacking breakdown, it was quite poor. Were any of those guys bad players? No. They just didn't complement each others' strengths in the manner needed for the game plan to work. The reality is, Hooper's a great ball runner and handy tackler, but he's not a traditional openside. And a traditional openside is much more easy to work into a team than a bloke who has his strong points elsewhere. It's not impossible, it just takes more work.

So many fixed opinions when the season's just starting. Same ol', same ol' !

But who else is there. Hodgeson who is at best a journeyman who makes virtually no impact, or Gill who is no better. He may not be the complete 7, but compared to what else is available, heis more than decent.

Horwill had a crackingly poor game tonight. He's in the twilight of his career unless he can lose that grumpy gen y entitlement chip on his shoulder.

AndrewWA while I appreciate your use of stats I have to question their validity. Hodgson clearly missed 3 tackles in that game so unsure how he was effective at 93%. I have to trust your number of rucks hit, early % and impact %. But if you get a simple one like missed tackles wrong then I do question their credibility. And I'm pretty sure he gave away a penalty in that game too. Don't get me wrong Hodgo had a good game. But it wasn't good enough to oust the incumbent. I'm hoping he comes back from his injury in great form and pushes for a WC spot. The guy deserves it.

So what was the excuse when the previous coaches selected him?