Wallabies set to stick with ‘Pooper’ backrow as they sweat on fitness of winger Drew Mitchell
THE flawed “Pooper” backrow is to continue for the Wallabies who are urgently hoping that wing weapon Drew Mitchell is fit to face South Africa.
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THE flawed “Pooper” backrow is to continue for the Wallabies who are urgently hoping that wing weapon Drew Mitchell is fit to face South Africa.
Mitchell hasn’t played for five months because of groin issues yet is valued so highly he could vault straight into Saturday night’s Test at Suncorp Stadium.
Such a jump is at long odds because it all depends on the 70-Test finisher surviving today’s intense training day at Ballymore where Reece Hodge, Luke Morahan, Henry Speight and Dane Haylett-Petty will be fully fit options.
Rising criticism of the shortcomings of a Test back row that includes two openside flankers seemed to float blissfully over the Wallabies when they got down to business on Monday.
David Pocock and Michael Hooper were as central to training schemes as ever.
It may be that coach Michael Cheika is backing their 114 Tests of joint experience more than ever to resuscitate the Wallabies with a desperately needed win over the Springboks.
Pocock said it was folly to understate Hooper’s contribution to the Wallabies when talking up his backrow partner in seven of Australia’s past 12 Tests.
“His workrate is huge and just the metres he gets through and the ground he covers are pretty impressive,” Pocock said.
“I really enjoy playing alongside Hoops and he’s probably got a lot of my John Eales Medal votes (as players’ player of the year) because he’s a real contributor and leader within the team.
“On selection issues, you’ll have to talk to the people who make the decisions.”
The “Pooper” partnership may simply be retained with Pocock at No.8 through lack of alternatives. Sean McMahon is no No.8 himself and raw Lopeti Timani needs extra skill development to make his 115kg-plus frame count more.
Fox Sports Stats yesterday highlighted what the Wallabies would be sacrificing if they shifted Hooper to the bench.
He has made more carries (50) and metres (252) as Australia’s top running forward in the five losing Tests this year than his five Tests at the World Cup (30 runs for 148m) while keeping up his 10-per-game tackle rate.
He has missed more tackles (up from 11 to 17), made more handling errors (up from 3 to 5) and his linebreaks have halved (6 to 3) in a side with those diminishing returns on a broader scale.
The impotence of Hooper (3) and Pocock (0) as lineout figures this year is the severe shortcoming that the Boks will try to exploit.
Pocock’s roommate Kyle Godwin, 24, is a fellow son of Zimbabwe and has a big chance of a Test debut from the bench as centre cover on Saturday night.
“He has a huge amount of talent. At the Western Force he’s probably not been part of a team where he’s been able to play his natural game at times,” Pocock said.
Pocock just knows the Wallabies have to win on Saturday night against a South African side stung by their own last-start loss to Argentina.
“Both sides have had their difficulties so there is a lot on the line and desperation always,” Pocock said.
Originally published as Wallabies set to stick with ‘Pooper’ backrow as they sweat on fitness of winger Drew Mitchell
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