Wallabies coach Dave Rennie sits on the fence about Michael Hooper

Absolutely mate and the guy who was captain is up there as part of it. If you’re the captain you have to take responsibility for part of it

I absolutely think you should choose your best person to be captain. I’ll be honest I don’t like Hooper as either a captain or a 7. He gives 100% and runs everywhere never giving up which is great, I just don’t think he’s that effective and he’s made too many poor decisions as a captain

Don’t play good if you want to be the captain :silly: I didn’t notice a big difference but maybe Hoops has played better just to impress Rennie, not because he gave up the captaincy.. Personally, I’d like to see that c next to his name again

1. Slipper 2. Fainga'a 3. Ala'alatoa 4. Philip 5. LSL 6. Valetini 7. Hooper 8. Naisarani 9. White 10. Toomua 11. Koroibete 12. JOC 13. Kuridrani 14. Wright 15. Banks 16. Uelese 17. Sio 18. Tupou 19. Simmons 20. Samu 21. Louwrens 22. Lolesio/Harrison 23. Kellaway 24. Rangi 25. Bell 26. R. Smith 27. Neville 28. Wilson 29. Wright 30. McDermott/Powell 31. Harrison/Lolesio 32. Meakes/English/Simone 33. DHP There's a decent squad with all the players available. Biggest weakness being lock simply because of Rodda's departure and hooker. Otherwise bit of depth everywhere and good player seven outside the 23 and a few good players like McCaffrey missing out. Line out the only concerning weakness.

You'd hope even if he opted for Hooper, it would still be part of developing a new culture.

Rennie would be relying on Johnson and Bretts IPad. He hasn’t seen any matches. Let me remind the various scribes. We are ranked at 7 and about to be thrashed three times by NZ. We need resuscitation not life support. I keep reading the names of those who have us there, listed as saviours. Scott Johnson, Dempsey, Thompson, Robertson , Hooper, Simmons, Toomua, Hodge, JOC, Koriebeti, Rhodda, Loto etc. Then we have Wayne’s world wonder boys from QLD . Stewart, Hockings, Scott Young , Petaia and the rest of the Reds squad. Rennie could muster a handy side but will need to ride wider. Samu, McMahon, Morahan, Wright, Banks, Meakes, Koriebeti, Lolisio, White, Fardy, Both Arnold’s, Enever, Neville, Valentini, McCaffrey, Harrison the new Hanigan with DHP Captain. Aalotau VC.

jcmaster, That's hardly a viable proposition. Hooper cannot play for the whole 15, or 23, or 30, or 43 man squad. Personal inspiration can only get you so far. And I'm speaking as someone who is not overly fond of Hooper, as a player, or as captain. The poor Wallabies record over many years, has many fathers.

It is the prerogative of the new coach to choose a new captain, but it is not always automatic. Hooper is not yet 30, yet he has already led the Wallabies in 5 out of the past 6 full years (2015 the exception). Rennie may well think he needs Hooper the refreshed flanker more than he needs Hooper the captain. But Rennie also needs a viable alternative, & that is probably his biggest problem going forward. Frankly, I have no idea who might be a good alternative to Hooper. A refreshed Hooper without the worries of captaincy might see him take his game to another level. It depends how sweetly Rennie handles the changeover. When Alan Jones became Wallaby coach in 1984, he horribly mismanaged the sacking of incumbent skipper Mark Ella. I agreed at the time with the removal of Ella as captain. Not because he was a poor leader, but as captain he worried too much about everyone else, & his personal game suffered as a result. Freed of the captaincy, Ella’s final year in rugby – 1984 – turned out to be his very best. But his demotion was managed without empathy by Jones, & was poorly relayed to all. Similarly, freed of the captaincy, we may see Hooper play at a completely more dominant level. As long as the transition is handled sensitively. I guess we’ll see when we eventually get to see…..!

All fair Mr Pun. I am genuinely excited by Rennie (in a quiet way). We need a steady hand like his desperately.

Indeed. He’s a definite starter and an experienced captain. Personally, I hope for a new culture and start and part of that is a new captain. But could certainly understand Rennie opting for Hooper.

Rennies words here are expected and display excellent logic from my point of view. Of course he’s picking his team first. Bolting Hooper to a team and a position by making him captain before even a training run would be ridiculous imo. He may end up at 7 and at captain. It is arguable that both are likely. But creating a foregone conclusion would not be conducive to team morale and development.

Youd reckon it would be a bit sus if Rennie had made the big decisions before he'd got in amongst the player group for a while... My own opinion , for what little it's worth, is Hooper looks like a much better player than captain.

On that basis you have to drop any decent test performer. Why would you wanna keep the “x position” that took the wallabies from 2nd to 7th in the world rankings. So to answer the question, why would you wanna keep Hooper? If he’s the best option. Same as if a new coach was taking over and the Wallabies had been first for the last decade. You’d still want to appoint the best captain.

Makes sense in some ways. Why would you want to keep the captain who took the Wallabies from 2nd to 7th in world ratings. Not a really compelling reason there

New directives make Hooper hard to drop from the side, gonna need pace in that loose trio. Are there really alternate captains that will be a step up Or maybe, new coach, new captain, new selections, new attitude - I think I favour the latter.

If Rennie intends to start Wright (and I’m not sure that he should) he could do worse than Wright. Suspect White or Alaalatoa could be good calls too.