Rugby World Cup: Michael Hooper urges Wallabies forwards to push on after England domination

MICHAEL Hooper was proud of the Wallabies forwards at Twickenham after copping plenty of heat over the mauling they took at the same ground less than a year ago.

England's prop Joe Marler (C) and England's prop Dan Cole (R) vie against Australia's flanker Michael Hooper (2R) during a Pool A match of the 2015 Rugby World Cup between England and Australia at Twickenham stadium, south west London on October 3, 2015. Australia won the match 33-13. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE, NO USE IN LIVE MATCH TRACKING SERVICES, TO BE USED AS NON-SEQUENTIAL STILLS

FLANKER Michael Hooper said he was proud of the Wallabies forwards for the mighty scrum showing at Twickenham after copping plenty of heat over the mauling they took at the same ground less than a year ago.

Hooper said 10 months of hard work had paid off for the Australian set-piece in the win over England, which saw the oft-maligned Wallaby scrum shed its reputation as being weak and win six penalties over the home team.

The English had hoped they could return to the scrum for some pay against the Wallabies and spoke pre-game about re-awakening demons from their November 29 victory last year.

Michael Hooper leads the way for the impressive Wallabies pack.

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Instead, however they were left with their own demons as the Wallabies potentially shook off their lingering scrummaging reputation for good.

“The guys have done a great job in turning that around,” Hooper, who captained the side in the Spring Tour loss, said.

“There’s a lot of the same players there. For me, I’m really happy for them. They’ve copped a lot of criticism and it’s been a really tough 10 months for them, working hard against each other week in, week out.

“To get a good performance is great and really pleasing for them to get some hard work to pay off there. But now they’ve set that benchmark for themselves they’ve got to keep that going. We want to get used to them playing like that and it starts again this week when we train against each other.”

Hooper stressed the bench forwards deserved credit, too, for coming on and seamlessly continuing the dominance.

England’s Chris Robshaw congratulates Michael Hooper after the Wallabies win.

Tighthead prop Sekope Kepu echoed the line that the Wallabies’ scrum was a work in progress, and that another big effort would be needed against Wales.

“We knew that they pride themselves on their set piece, we just quietly went about our work for the last nine months whatever,” Kepu said.

‘We just has to keep at it, You knock off on one scrum and one guys knocks off for one moment and its seven guys against eight. We have to keep on top of each other, keep working towards that perfect scrummaging performance.”

Originally published as Rugby World Cup: Michael Hooper urges Wallabies forwards to push on after England domination