Sevens coach takes swipe at Jones after signing Hooper for Olympics

Australian sevens coach John Manenti took a swipe at Eddie Jones for suggesting Michael Hooper was not a good role model for young players after signing the former Wallabies captain for a season – a decision based heavily on Hooper’s capacity to lead and inspire his squad.

As revealed by this masthead in September, Hooper will get a second chance at signing off in a gold jersey at Paris 2024 after taking up a one-year sevens contract with Rugby Australia. The deal was officially announced on Thursday and Hooper will join the Australian sevens squad full-time in January.

In what was set to be his international farewell after 11 years as a Wallaby, Hooper was controversially left out of the Rugby World Cup squad by Jones. The omission was initially put down to a calf injury but, prior to resigning three weeks ago, Jones told this masthead he had cut Hooper, Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley because they were not “the right role models for the team going forward”.

“I strongly disagree with those comments and I don’t know why they needed to be said, to be honest,” Manenti said.

“His (Hooper’s) reputation, if nothing else, has been exactly that – a good role model, a good work ethic, a good training ethic. I know when those comments came out, the amount of players that came out publicly and said things: that told me enough.

“He is uncompromising around his standards and his beliefs, and that may upset some people. He may upset me at times, too – that’s the reality of guys who are strong-willed and want to be the best. So we may butt heads but that’ll be a good thing, you want to be challenged and to challenge each other, to be better.”

Michael Hooper has joined the Australian sevens squad for a year.Credit: Rugby Australia

Hooper said he is excited about the prospect of potentially playing at an Olympic Games in July, where he may come up against superstar France captain Antoine Dupont, who has also signed on to play sevens and will skip the Six Nations to prepare for the Games.

“It would be an amazing experience. There is so much water under the bridge to get into that environment,” Hooper told Today on Thursday.

“I’ve trained with these guys. They are hungry and can run forever. I’m one of the bigger guys in the team which is very unusual. It should be great.”

Having played only one sevens tournament in his life, for Manly at the 2009 Kiama Sevens, Hooper knows he’s got a big physical transition ahead – particularly given he is 32 and sevens training is based on an extreme combination of repeat high-speed efforts, and endurance.

Wallabies head coach Eddie Jones flanked by former co-captains James Slipper and Michael Hooper in June.Credit: Getty

“I guess the benefit of not having to carry as much bulk is going to be good,” Hooper said.

“You know, you’re not playing 130-150 kilo blokes week in, week out, but you’re playing guys that can run 10 metres a second. So we’ve got to change my body to fit into that mould.”

With the end goal of keeping Hooper healthy and into the frame for Olympic selection, Manenti said he will not be rushing the 125-Test flanker and may not select him for a debut in Perth on the Australia Day weekend.

The Perth tournament has replaced Sydney as Australia’s stop on the eight-stop World Sevens Series but it is the third leg, so Hooper would only have five tournaments after that to press for Olympic selection. Australia’s mens and women’s sevens teams kick off the now fully integrated series in Dubai and Cape Town next month.

Michael Hooper and Australian sevens coach John Manenti chat about his future.Credit: Rugby Australia

“I am prepared to be patient with him … it’ll be a build-up,” Manenti said.

“I know it’d be a wonderful story to have him running on in Perth at the end of January but we will only consider that if he’s ready, and he’s earned selection. It may be a push too far. We will wait and see, but we’ll definitely err on the side of caution.”

In a handful of sessions so far, Manenti said the impact of Hooper on the Australian sevens squad has already been obvious.

“He openly admits he has to learn the game, he has to get conditioned, there is lots of stuff around that,” Manenti said.

“We know he’s hard on the ball, we know he has a big engine and we know he’s pretty tough. They’re not bad assets to have.

“His general skill set, his leadership, his professionalism, are going to have a great impact on the lads. He has already had a few training sessions with us, and the impact and energy around the boys as soon as he comes in just goes up. The quality goes up. If a bloke misses a pass to him by two pe rcent it’s ike ‘ah sorry mate, sorry’. I am like ‘you didn’t apologise for that last week!’. ”

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