Wallabies to embrace ‘grub’ spirit against Springboks with ‘Great Dane’ and ‘Jack Russell’ leading the charge
Wallabies Nic White and Will Skelton involved in a scuffle with the British and Irish Lions.
Tom Hooper has praised the impact of Wallabies veterans Nic White and Will Skelton for the edge they give Joe Schmidt’s charges.
The duo both started the third Test between the British and Irish Lions and Australia, helping the side to a 22-12 victory with the pair taking the fight to the tourists.
White and Skelton both riled up the Lions and got under the skin of the opposition, and are set to deploy similar tactics in the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship opener against the Springboks at Ellis Park on Saturday.
Hooper, who also started that third Test, hailed the impact of giant second rower Skelton, who plies his trade at French club La Rochelle, for his ability to set the tone physically for the Wallabies.
Will Skelton, the enforcer
And he expects him to do the same against a Springboks‘ pack that is renowned to be the best in the world.
“Absolutely. I think he’d definitely be up for that challenge, and anyone who’s picked in the jersey alongside him will follow him into battle, that’s for sure,” Hooper told reporters on Wednesday.
“It’s great, mate. He’s an enforcer, and that’s what he’s been doing for a long time now in the beautiful sport of rugby.
“He’s been, for want of a better word, he loves being that grub. He loves taking it to teams physically and making the gentleman’s game a bit more exciting.
“We love playing with him and he’s just a physical presence. I’ve never felt so small when I go over at the end of the game and give him a big hug, I feel like a little kid again. So, it’s always good.”
Hooper says that the Wallabies will embrace that kind of spirit that Skelton brings, as well as that of scrum-half White, as they cannot afford to take a step back against South Africa.
“You got the Great Dane Will Skelton, and then you got the little Jack Russell, Nic White, and the Jack Russell is sometimes a little bit more fiery and he’s nipping at the heels of those boys. So he loves not taking a backwards step, whoever’s picked in that gold jersey, that’s the kind of spirit that we want to play with going forward,” he continued.
“You can see it kind of inspires a 23 on the field and as much as we had a had a really good fan base back home on home soil, we know out here it’s going to be a green fan bace and we got to sure that the 23 in that circle are looking after each other, we can’t take a backward step, we can’t afford to.”
Toeing the line
Former Test referee Owen Doyle hit out at the scenes produced during the Lions tour, taking aim at Skelton in particular for his shoves off the ball that caused a scuffle between the two teams.
While Doyle believes slammed the actions of the Wallaby, Hooper believes that his teammate toes the line well and is purposeful in his actions.
“If you look at anything that Will does, it’s never meaningless. It’s always with intent. It’s always just being physical. We step out on that field as soon as you cross that white line; that’s your intent to physically impose yourself,” he added.
“We know that comes with a bit of a blue head, be calm and stay in the moment but the thing that’s really good is that we connect really well out on the field, and that’s how we find that blue head. We are next job-focused and we come together and gather ourselves.”
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