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For years Lachlan Hooper has been trying to get out of the shadow of his older brother, Tom.
That won’t change any time soon. Not after the 22-year-old was called up into Eddie Jones’ first Wallabies squad on Sunday.
“He’s come from nowhere,” Jones said of Hooper, who missed the first half of the season but had already impressed by catching Michael Cheika’s eye last year.
“Combative, absolutely combative,” he added, when asked what he liked about the burgeoning Brumbies forward. “Chiefs game he’s taken them on, he’s in everything. Really good.”
Tom Hooper has been called into the Wallabies’ squad after capturing Eddie Jones’ eye against the Chiefs. (Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
But he’s not the only Hooper who has many in Australian rugby excited.
Indeed, Morgan Turinui described younger brother Lachie a “gun” earlier this week on Stan Sport’s Between Two Posts podcast, having watched him in youth teams before joining his older brother at the Brumbies ahead of the recent season.
The 19-year-old, who will once again start at blindside flanker against Ireland in the Junior Wallabies’ second under-20s world championship fixture on Thursday, boasts many of the same qualities as his older brother.
The duo not only look similar, they both wear headgear and play in the same position.
Lachlan Hooper (C) is hoping to make his own name in the nation’s capital. (Photo credit: Lachy Lawson, Brumbies Media)
Hooper even tried to get away with the same nickname when he arrived at the Brumbies’ pre-season fresh from a shortened schoolies trip.
So, is it a blessing or curse having your older brother in the same squad?
“Definitely positives and negatives,” Hooper told The Roar on the eve of the Junior Wallabies’ under-20s world championship campaign.
“First day in I had to say a nickname and I go, ‘Hoops’. The boys replied, ‘Yeah, that’s already been taken, so find another one.’
“He’s been a great role model with me, just helping me through everything. But there’s also the negatives of him coming through first and you’re trying to make your own name a little bit. But everyone still sees me as a completely different person, which is good.”
After graduating from Barker College last year, Hooper moved in with his older brother just across the road from the Brumbies’ headquarters ahead of Stephen Larkham’s first pre-season.
Lachie Hooper, 19, at Brumbies training. (Photo credit: Lachy Lawson, Brumbies Media)
But thankfully the days when the young Bathurst boys would sort out their issues with boxing gloves are over. Well, in the front yard anyway.
“We had heaps of busts up when I was growing up,” Tom Hooper told The Roar early in the new year.
“He’s [Lachlan] actually left-handed, I’m right-handed, so we only ever had one set of boxing gloves. I’d take the right-handed glove and he’d take the left-handed glove and the rest is history. It usually ended up in tears or just him getting angry because he’s a fiery little bastard.
“So a couple of bust-ups, a couple of touch games in the backyard that turned into tackle, but because he was three years’ younger than me, he was always a little bit smaller but he’s just got that dog about him, that bit of fight about him.”
Lachie Hooper admits he often came away “second best”.
“As all brothers do, we had a few fights every now and then,” he quipped.
“Dad’s thing was always just no fighting in the house. If we started getting at it in the house, he’d say get outside and handle it out there.
“We had a little paddock out the front of our place, which was a lot of one-on-one rugby games. He was a lot bigger than me then, so I came out second best too many times.”
Perhaps it was that early schooling that has many excited about the abrasive 195cm, 101kg back-rower.
Competent in the carry and his link play, Hooper wore the No.6 jersey in the Junior Wallabies’ 46-37 first-up victory over Fiji in their opening fixture on Saturday.
Lachlan Hooper is a player on the rise for the Junior Wallabies. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)
Hooper was also effective at the lineout, but his ability to get on the ball has many thinking that in time he will end up as an openside.
Nor has he had a better mentor than ‘Lord’ Laurie Fisher during the infancy of his professional career.
“Obviously through that pre-season, Lord has a few contact blocks, which definitely hit you in the face a little bit,” he said.
“You’re coming out of them blowing very hard and going, ‘Gosh, this is the next step and definitely a bit of a reality check’. Just the speed in which you’ve got to learn stuff is also another big step up.”
While Hooper is also starting to appreciate his brother’s words of wisdom.
“When we were younger, it was more of a rivalry,” he said. “Now, it’s just learning from him.
“When I was younger, I thought he was just the annoying older brother and now when I hear what he’s saying, I’m like he’s actually trying to help me out, so he’s been really helpful in those situations.”
And while his brother is about to join him in South Africa, Lachlan says it’s important the Junior Wallabies regain the momentum from the class of 2019, who came within a whisker of taking out the title.
“Coming off the back of the last World Cup in 2019 when those boys went really well, it’d be great to show that we’re the future of Australian rugby,” he said.
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.