Highly-rated young front-row puts his hand up for Wallabies captaincy role
Young front-row Angus Bell has thrown his hat into the ring to captain the under-performing Wallabies after admitting that Australia’s poor Rugby World Cup campaign still haunts the playing group.
Although Rugby Australia must still appoint a new head coach for Australia, after Eddie Jones resigned last month, Bell revealed his interest in the captaincy role despite being one of the Wallabies’ younger players at the age of 23.
Bell is highly-rated as a player and has already been anointed by legendary Australia centre Tim Horan as a future Wallabies captain.
Keen on the leadership role
“I’ve always aspired to be a leader,” Bell told Rugby Australia’s official website on Tuesday. “That’s completely up to the new head coach. I’ve got to make the Wallabies first and make the Waratahs first.
“Through actions on the field and whatever else happens, that decision is then made by the head coach (but) it was awesome to hear Timmy say that.
“He’s a legend of Australian rugby and has been highly successful also with the Wallabies.”
Jones initially appointed the experienced duo of Michael Hooper and James Slipper as his captains ahead of the 2023 international campaign but by the end of his reign, he had used six captains during the year.
Hooper was overlooked for the Wallabies’ World Cup campaign and has since turned his focus to Sevens with a view of making Australia’s squad for next year’s Olympic Games in Paris.
Fellow veteran Slipper has made 134 appearances for Australia and is the country’s second-most-capped Wallaby, but he is set to turn 35 in 2024.
The Wallabies’ incoming coach will most likely appoint a younger leader ahead of their upcoming three-Test series against the British & Irish Lions in 2025 and the 2027 World Cup on home soil.
Of the Wallabies’ other four players who captained the team in 2023, second-row Will Skelton, who was appointed to lead the team at the recent World Cup in France, and hooker Dave Porecki, who took over as skipper when Skelton was injured at the global showpiece, are both 31 while scrum-halves Tate McDermott and Nic White, who also skippered the team earlier in the year are 25 and 33 respectively.
Time to move on from World Cup woes
Regardless of whether he is the running for the leadership role or not, Bell feels it’s time for the team to move on after their underwhelming performance at the World Cup in France.
“The good thing is potentially there are opportunities there for Australian rugby to redeem a little bit of that respect back that we lost at the World Cup,” he said.
“In professional sport, you can’t hang on to things for too long, so we’re excited for next year.”
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