Australia has two openside flankers who present a fascinating contrast.
Michael Hooper is a speed merchant. He’s a real burner. He can leave many a centre for dead. Give him a couple of metres and he’ll be sprinting past your halfbacks into the backfield, and he might even step you.
Hooper has amazing hair. I am not saying it is good. It is amazing. He leads Super Rugby in ‘hair touches’ with 5.3 per game.
He is tiny. To this, many Roarers will provide statistics and measurements. Spare yourselves the trouble. I have seen him from less than ten metres away, standing immediately next to Francois Louw and Willem Alberts. They were like the three bears and Hooper was not the Papa or the Mama Bear. He wasn’t even the Baby Bear.
Hooper is a superb athlete. He is so fast, his socks cannot remain up. He’s young and cocky and he sometimes gets on the wrong side of the referee. But he is so fit and talented that he captains the national team.
But will he be the skipper of the Wallaby ship when it sails for England this year?
Looming is the imposing figure of David Pocock. Pocock has no time for hair repair. He has, however, repaired the earthquake in Nepal while adopting four dozen refugees, cooled the seas’ temperatures with his conscience, delayed deforestation by 3.2 years, forced Saudi Arabia to pass marriage equality laws with just the clapping of his hands, fixed Zimbabwe, composed the first fair trade symphony, and eradicated hurtful sledging from all sporting codes in the Southern Hemisphere.
Pocock is too good to be true. He is strong, he is ethical, he is not a bad looking young man, he has causes to which he is true, and he probably can fix your car.
He might be the Wallaby captain. You won’t see him galloping in open space very often, although he played in the midfield in schools and has good hands. He is usually tied up in knots at a ruck, killing the quick ball, pilfering while being mauled, planting his powerful legs akimbo, refusing to move.
Pocock also is the conscience of world rugby. He turned Jannie du Plessis in for threatening to break his neck, he outed Jacques Potgieter as someone in need of speech training, and has saved several trees in danger. Most recently, he used the clap not heard around the world.
He was not born big. I have stood right next to him, and have a picture of us together, arm in arm, singing Kumbaya. Again, they list his height generously. But he has packed every bit of muscle on to his frame as is possible, and is still able to run and ruck for 80 minutes.
He can survive cleanouts that would put Hooper into the emergency room. Hooper could lap Pocock in a 40-metre race. Hooper would lose to Pocock in a sensitivity scrum. Pocock would lose to Hooper in a hair contest.
The fastest forward meets the nicest forward this weekend.
Who will stand tallest?
bennalong
Guest
Harry Sorry, I didn't mean to ignore you. You're a champion writer. Love your humour. It lures me back to the Roar. One note: Michel Hooper has been cleaned out by the biggest of the Saffer buggers and not missed a game. He's a tough rooster and makes more metres in close than most of his big forward mates. He's his own freaky position and gives Cheika back cover so he can stack his bench with forwards.
bennalong
Guest
Sheek Hi there. Don't you see a place for the bloke who does the work of two? Only Phipps has the stamina to cover so much ground and play eighty. Hooper is everywhere including making that last cover tackle the winger or Folau failed to get to I don't understand how people fail to appreciate that Hooper is a once in a generation player. He used to play more like a traditional seven but Cheika changed that and is unlikely to change his mind. He is Mr reliable too, absorbing an immense amount of battering and turning in great performances week in, week out.
sheek
Roar Guru
Hi Harry, i know your piece is written with some humour, but I'm not really a fan of either Pocock or Hooper, although when pressed, I would prefer Pocock. Neither is an ideal openside flanker, bringing different skills to the position. I would prefer Gill, all things being equal, but he has some way to go to measure up. Pocock is a man of intense integrity, but he needs to be careful about thrusting his views on the general public. He needs to keep his personal crusades separate from his rugby career until he retires. Then he can be as publicly driven as he likes with his causes. Hooper grates on me for some reason. Maybe he strikes me as a bit of a smart-arse. I can't put my finger on it, but the socks around the ankles doesn't help. As an old-timer, I'm a stickler for socks up to below the knees. When the IRB decides to allow ankle sox to replace full leg stockings then I'll accept it.
KTinHK
Roar Pro
Play them both. With his running game, Hooper would make a great blind side breakaway to complement Pocock's fetching at number 7.
RF
Guest
Well there shouldn't be any doubt as to who won that tussle. Hooper owned Poey at outside centre...
Ruminate
Roar Guru
Other great current day 'hair touchers' ....James O'Conner'? Probably plenty of backs Tatafu??
Browny
Roar Rookie
I could see that, kibui b. You could run a 6-2 split (with Hooper as utility cover) and construct a back 5 (plus bench) something like this: Simmons (4/5) Skelton (5/4) Pocock (7) Fardy (6/4/5) Palu (8/6) Higginbotham (6/8) Timani (6/8/5/4) Hooper (7/utility) Start Skelton and Simmons as locks and Pocock at 7, Hooper wears the #21 jumper. Then you pick your 6 & 8 depending on how you want to approach the particular game. If you want to play a bit tighter and attack the breakdown early start Fardy and Palu 8 but if you want to boost the lineout run Fardy and Higginbotham. Timani and Higginbotham gives you a bit more aggression in contact but some run out wide, Timani and Palu if you want to really bruise 'em up.... so on and so forth. Fardy and Timani give you lock cover, Hooper covers 7 (and a backline 'in case of emergency' situation)... you've got a lot of coverage and a mix of skills and playing styles. If Tiamni can't cut in at international level he could be swapped for McCalman or Vaea. I hope Timani gets a crack and does well because I think his frame and playing style (and versatility) would be a great asset in England.
Digby
Roar Guru
Beautiful as always in Paradise Meneer Jones ;)
dsat24
Guest
Fetching is 'beneath' big Victor. :)
jeznez
Roar Guru
I'm not talking about a match day 23/bench options Harry. I'm talking about in the RWC Squad there was no player apart from Pocock who was a capable 7. In the end Dean's rolled the dice taking extra cover for Palu which wasn't needed in the pools and instead took no cover for Pocock which - saw us start a test with a player who had not played the position since he was in the under-21's or maybe even schoolboys.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Of course when Chuck Norris jumps, he doesn't move the world does....
Harry Jones
Expert
SA tries to use a guy on the bench like Burger or Coetzee or Kolisi who can cover all three positions.
Harry Jones
Expert
Folau can jump, has hands the size of hams, and has a wide shoulder frame. I think he'd pinch a few.
jeznez
Roar Guru
Mike we can have a difference of opinion. The comment about what a player has done since is meaningless to a conversation about the form they were in at the time. Ultimately we don't know if it would have made a difference v Ireland but I have to say their back row had strong games that day. Anyway my argument holds up from a strategic point of view - it was a bad decision to take a player in Higginbotham in the initial squad who did not play a pool game. Especially when he was brought in to cover a guy in Palu who was fine until the Russia game and when in the Ireland match a player had to play out of position in McCalman. Just as you don't like people putting forward this argument, I don't like the one put forward by j2 saying there wasn't any option. There clearly were two options (whether they were good options is debatable but they were options). I don't want to re-hash this ad nauseam as I don't think either of us is likely to budge but that is ok. Go Tahs this weekend!
jeznez
Roar Guru
Even better than Chuck?
jeznez
Roar Guru
Jones would give you an additional utility so you could be right. If the experiment is made during the RC (and he does well) then Timani could be a utility lock/back row as well
jeznez
Roar Guru
NB I normally wouldn't go two open sides in a match day 23 but these two bring something so different I would be tempted to have them both. I think we'll have the utilities starting in Fardy and Simmons which may create the flexibility required.
Rob G
Guest
Personally I would also start Pocock, with Palu at 8. I would tell Palu to go batsh!t crazy for 50 mins, at which point i would sub him for hooper and shift pocock to 8.
Rob G
Guest
without question NB
kibui b
Guest
Sure he could learn if he had to.....seeing as the Aussie backs rarely run the ball back.... On the other hand, he can cover the 12,13 channel as well as 6 & 7.