Wallabies respond to authority of Pocock
DAVID Pocock never felt finished as a Wallaby even when eyeballing a bull elephant in remote Zimbabwe where his Test updates trickled through by text last year.
The muscular flanker is a marvel and not just because he’s added 20 per cent to the fear factor that the Wallabies will stir in opponents worldwide after tormenting Ireland.
A batsman away from cricket’s Test arena for 18 months invariably loses timing and his batting average dips yet here was Pocock ruling Suncorp Stadium like he’d never left.
It wasn’t only the 15 tackles, three turnovers, seven obstinate ball-carries, his calm and the match-clinching try last Saturday night but the lift he gave every teammate.
“Players like Dave never lose their touch with the game … he’s special,” Kurtley Beale said of the 67-Test warhorse. The value of that 18-9 statement against the world’s No.2 team was huge ahead of the second Test in Melbourne on Saturday.
Finally, this was a Wallabies team starting Test season in full-blast September form and with the temperament to handle the adversity of a poor notry call. Maybe this no-excuses culture that coach Michael Cheika talks of can be real.
Pocock and Michael Hooper have now won nine of the 15 Tests they have paired in and, fitness willing, they are here to stay for a World Cup in Japan next year.