Fighting words for the Wallabies
BOXING underdog Jeff Horn has roused the Wallabies to rediscover their armour of self-belief to floor a world champion just as he plans to do.
The Brisbane welterweight spoke impressively yesterday when likening the quest to knock out the All Blacks to his own leap of faith to take down ring legend Manny Pacquiao.
His arrival at Wallabies training yesterday at Ballymore was major inspiration for part-time pug Quade Cooper because he knew all about Horn’s unseen toil in the gym.
Low blows have rained on the Wallabies since angry fan Jack Quigley’s dam-bursting Facebook post berated the sloppy 24-19 loss to Scotland.
Horn was an ideal voice on fighting back because it’s easy to forget he was picked on as a schoolboy before he laced on the gloves.
“You’ve got to have a thick skin for starters and if you don’t you’ve got to grow it,” Horn said.
“You’ve got to get your confidence up like boxing did for me and belief is like armour.”
Ruthlessly beating the Italian side, with a volley of five or six killer tries, must be the way back for the Wallabies at a half-empty Suncorp Stadium on Saturday.
Horn is $6 to knockout Pacquiao on July 2 when the same venue will be a throbbing cauldron and many rate the Wallabies at similar odds to topple the Kiwis on August 19 in Sydney.
“Sometimes it just takes getting a rival at the right time and the Wallabies being in the zone like I want to be on my fight day,” Horn said.
“It’s then that amazing things can happen and you can beat the world champion.”
Cooper’s zeal for the comparison was instant and he threw a haymaker on the way through at keyboard warriors who throw barbs at the care factor within the Wallabies.
“Jeff is a massive inspiration for us ... he has a massive challenge fighting Manny and that’s like us as footballers with Italy and later the All Blacks for the Bledisloe Cup,” Cooper said.
Coach Michael Cheika had admirably phoned Quigley for a chat on Monday after the Wallaby fanatic’s anger stirred an army of 42,000-plus disgruntled Facebook believers. Quigley had slated the Wallabies for “quite literally hurting people with your lack of application to your jobs.”
“I’m not saying it (criticism) is unfair…and to see passion from fans is great,” Cooper said.
“But it’s easy for people to sit behind a keyboard.”