Hooper staying silent over his tour predictions
There are no bold promises from the Wallabies before next month’s spring tour of Europe.
After a forgettable Test season to date, skipper Michael Hooper knows it would be foolish to start making grandiose predictions of an unbeaten campaign against Wales, Italy and England.
They’ve done this too many times before and come unstuck, often in the first leg and with much stronger squads than Michael Cheika’s class of 2018.
The reality is no Australian side has completed a northern hemisphere tour of at least three Tests undefeated since 1996, so it would be fanciful to believe Cheika’s lot would be the first in 22 years to achieve the rare feat.
Hooper wasn’t prepared to reveal so publicly, even if they believe it internally, after the All Blacks completed a 3-0 Bledisloe Cup series whitewash with an all-too-familiar win over the Wallabies.
“We’ve got some standards and some goals that we want to achieve as a group that we’re working on for this tour,” Hooper said.
“I’m not going to throw out there how many games (we are going to win). We’ve got something that we think is going to produce results for us.”
The Wallabies will stay on in Japan for another week before departing for Europe.
Cheika, who guided Australia to the 2015 World Cup final after only being parachuted into the job days before the 2014 spring tour, said it was vital the Wallabies showed improvements in their final three Tests of the year.
But, less than 11 months out from the next global showpiece, he isn’t panicking, despite his team winning only three international outings so far this year.
“If you look at the last World Cup, I don’t think I was even with the team at this time,” Cheika said.
“What I believe is that we’ll be more and more competitive as we get closer to the World Cup.”