Rugby World Cup: Meet Tom Hooper, one of Eddie Jones’ eclectic Wallabies
Meet the new Honeybadger, Australia’s Tom Hooper is confusing and entertaining foreign journalists in equal measure with his dry outback humour at this World Cup.
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Think the Wallabies are lacking characters?
Or that Eddie Jones is the only bloke worth listening to?
Well, think again, because the Australian squad at the World Cup is jam packed with eclectic personalities.
Once the preserve of posh, private school boys, the 2023 World Cup Wallabies come in all shapes, sizes and colours and include men of faith, some rascals, man mountains, pint-sized surfers and even throwbacks to the days of the wild colonial boys.
And if you don’t know who’s who just yet, don’t stress it.
If this band of misfits somehow manages to win the World Cup, they’ll all be household names soon enough, partly because there’s a documentary already being made, but also because they are a merry band of men who are getting along like a house on fire.
By the time the tournament and the film is finished, Tom Hooper will be one of the star acts in high demand.
The 22-year-old loose forward is an old school footballer who plays with his heart on his sleeve, but also possesses a wicked sense of dry outback humour.
At his first World Cup press conference, he had reporters and teammates in stitches as he reeled off a stream of salty one liners from everything to the taste of ‘winner’s p***’ to the need for the Wallabies to stop Australia’s Fijian opponents from ‘pulling one out of their clackers.”
For the travelling press corp, the deviation from the usual mantra for players reverting to taking every match one at a time, it was manna from heaven. Lets just hope all the wowsers don’t find fault in his laconic wit and dob him into the fun police.
Unsurprisingly, he’s already been likened to Nick Cummins – aka the Honey Badger – who used to leave live television presenters speechless with his own unique brand of responses, such as his classic: “you’ve got to be on your toes – like a midget in a urinal.”
For those that know Hooper (who is unrelated to the former captain Michael who didn’t make the World Cup team), his country drawl is a throwback to the bushrangers who used to roam the central west in the gold mining days.
By coincidence, Hooper hails from that sunburnt country, from little Oberon in the Central Tablelands, west of Sydney.
It’s the same small town where Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy played league as a kid. It if wasn’t for the 41-year-age gap, they could be brothers in jest.
They share another trait because they breed ‘em tough in Oberon.
The Tigers, the local league team, won 10 group grand finals between 1961 and 1971, beating the bigger, richer rural teams of the time including Bathurst Charlestons, Lithgow Small Arms Factory, Orange Cyms and the Blayney Bears.
Hooper was raised on a cattle farm, but the beef industry isn’t what it used to be, so doesn’t always pay the bills.
His parents got themselves regular jobs to get their kids through school. Tom went to St Stanislaus, a Catholic boy’s school in neighbouring Bathurst, within walking distance of the Mount Panorama motor racetrack.
A rugby school that has produced more than half a dozen Wallabies, its alumni includes Marty Roebuck, Australia’s starting fullback from the famous side that won the 1991 World Cup.
Those that know Hooper well, say he was a talented kid who worked hard for everything he’s achieved.
Matthew McRobert, a long-time player and senior coach at the Bathurst Bulldogs rugby club where the Hooper family all cut their teeth, said they were salt of the earth country folk who do anything for Australian rugby – without ever forgetting their humble roots.
“His dad is an old Bulldog and a very good player in his day but is mad as a cut snake,” McRobert said. “His mum is a nice lady and is always up for a chat.
“Tom had a lot of mates playing grade for Bulldogs now. He and Eddie sent a good luck message to the Bulldogs teams prior to the grand finals a few weeks back.
“I’m super happy for him, he’s a good young kid who’s had his fair share of setbacks but he’s got it all in front of him now.”
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Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Meet Tom Hooper, one of Eddie Jones’ eclectic Wallabies
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