Upbeat Hooper dares to dream
IT’S a 40- day buffer zone the Wallabies are banking on to bury the woes of Australian rugby in 2017 and create a famous upset win over the All Blacks.
Australia head into the opening Bledisloe Cup match at ANZ Stadium as the biggest outsiders ever on home soil.
No Aussie team could beat a Kiwi team in 26 Super Rugby games this year and the Kiwis used the same fixture last year to humiliate the Wallabies by 34 points.
There has seldom been a more pessimistic mood among Australian rugby fans about snapping the 14- year Bledisloe Cup drought. But, according to captain Michael Hooper, there is one group of people who haven’t given up on the “dream” of lifting the famous Cup: the Wallabies.
Despite the ugly evidence of 2017, Hooper’s team enter the game with a quiet confidence, based on a 40- day project to bury the Super Rugby season and start a whole new one.
With barely any involvement in the Super Rugby finals, the Wallabies entered their first camp on July 10 and, through a mountain of hard work in the ensuing weeks, players say they forged an all- new belief, both physically and mentally.
Hooper said the fitness element had certainly come up to scratch after concerns about a sub- par level of conditioning was raised in June.
“There was a lot made about that, but we are fitter, we have had that opportunity,” Hooper said.
“That’s one of the silver linings. It’s mentally knowing you are able to work harder ... where we are right now guys know they’re fit and are willing to push themselves.”