Under-fire Wallabies coach Eddie Jones has defined his choice to go away Michael Hooper at house for the Rugby World Cup, claiming he was not “the right role model” for the crew.
Hooper, a 125-game veteran for the Wallabies, was a obvious omission from the crew that jetted to France together with Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley.
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Instead, Jones opted to call a youthful albeit inexperienced squad for the World Cup, with simply seven of the 33 gamers aged 30 or above.
However, Jones’ gamble on youth backfired because the Wallabies had been bundled out on the first stage of the event for the primary time ever.
It left many questioning whether or not the veteran presence of somebody like Cooper, Foley or Hooper would have been helpful to supply a cool head when instances inevitably obtained powerful.
Yet Jones stood his floor when he revealed why the likes of Hooper weren’t taken alongside for the journey.
“The situation reminded me of when Wayne Bennett let Wally Lewis go,” Jones advised The Sydney Morning Herald.
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“No-one could quite understand why, but Wally Lewis wasn’t a great role model for the rest of the team.
“And for those guys, I don’t think they were the right role models for the team going forward.
“Don’t get me wrong. They’re not bad guys.
“But you need guys – particularly when you’ve got a team like Australia has at the moment – you need guys who are obsessed with winning, obsessed with being good, and those three are past those stages.”
When additional pressed why he lumped Hooper — who had captained the Wallabies for a number of years — into the class of not being an awesome function mannequin, Jones doubled down.
“I stand by it, 100 per cent,” Jones stated.
“He is a great guy but the timing is not right for him.”
Source web site: www.foxsports.com.au
