HOOPER PLOTS WALLABIES BLEDISLOE TURNAROUND
MICHAEL Hooper believes the Wallabies can “flip 30 points” from Sydney’s ugly scoreline by executing their game plan in the second Bledisloe Cup game in Dunedin.
For the second year running, his team has travelled to New Zealand trying to figure out how to turn around a heavy loss inside a week.
Last year the Wallabies followed a 42-8 drubbing with a 29-9 loss in Wellington, but the new skipper said there was more optimism now despite last weekend’s 54-34 caning.
The Wallabies rallied to score 28 points in the second half and while some would argue it’s a trap to focus on points scored above points conceded, Hooper said it was a sign of their potential.
“We didn’t do what we wanted to do, so it’s not like we did everything we could and it wasn’t good enough,” he said.
“There is a different feeling between last year’s loss and this year’s loss.
“The feeling (at halftime) was we just weren’t doing anything we’d spoken about in the first half, so why not go back out there and try and make it different. We spoke about putting them under pressure and it started to work.
“Yes, people say they were so far in front and so on.
“But the reality is they’re the best team in the world and we scored 30-odd points.”
Somehow, New Zealand left Sydney downcast, after dropping off in the last half-hour.
“It would be foolish to not think they’re going to get better,” Hooper said. “But we have a good opportunity to close that gap and the short turnaround is good for us.”