In this week’s edition of Look Who’s Talking Now, our wrap of RUPA members and what they’re saying in the media, it’s all about forward thinking.
Yes, we’re thinking forward in terms of the fact that there are only four and a half weeks until the start of the 2016 Super Rugby season, and yes we’re thinking forward after Eddie Jones named his first England squad ahead of the upcoming Six Nations; how different will it look when he brings his new side down under in June?
Primarily, however, we’re thinking forward because this week we’re hearing entirely from the forwards, with props, hookers, locks and back rowers dominating the media spotlight (which if you asked them would surely be ‘how things are meant to be!’).
We start off with new Waratahs Captain Michael Hooper, announced in the role on Wednesday, telling Fox Sports’ Sam Worthington how he intends to lead his side in 2016.
“Wins. In short, you want to win, you want to create a good environment and have a good time doing what is such a good job,” Hooper said, when asked what he wanted to achieve. “We get to train every day and throw a footy around the field and enjoy each other’s company, so we’ve got a pretty awesome job and we want to turn that into an even better one with winning.”
From Hooper to another skipper in Matt Hodgson from the Western Force, who spoke to AAP’s Justin Chadwick as he entered his eleventh Super Rugby pre-season.
"When I first started it was black and white TV," Hodgson joked on Monday."A lot of things have changed over time but I'm enjoying it. If I didn't enjoy it, I wouldn't still be doing it. I'm a bit over training now, so ready to start playing some footy."
Melbourne Rebels back rower Scott Fuglistaller was Co-Captain in 2015, and while the Rebels are yet to announce their Leadership Group for the upcoming campaign it would come as a big surprise if he didn’t feature in some capacity. He spoke to RUPA about how hard he had to work to forge a professional career, and what he’s doing to prepare himself for life after Rugby.
I have spent my time doing labouring and tiling before I moved to Melbourne, and done my fair share of the hard graft, so having to really work to get me where I am has always reminded me how important it is to look after life outside of Rugby because you never know when it will end,” he told RUPA.
He also mentioned how the Rebels will look to play in 2016; “we have a new attack coach in Leo Crowley who brings some different aspects to our setup, and there will be some slight changes to our attacking style (including) hopefully adding a little extra skill work and flair.”
Fuglistaller’s teammate in Melbourne Toby Smith had a year to remember in 2015, making his Wallabies debut and playing in the Rugby World Cup Semi Final, and he told Christy Doran that his side is targeting consistency in 2016.
“We’re not thinking about finals at this stage,” he said. “We’re just working on our game and looking for that consistency, which hasn’t been there always in the past. We had a few close losses last season and we want to turn those into wins, so we’re just focusing on our consistency.”
His Wallaby teammate, David Pocock, is hoping familiarity will play in the Brumbies’ favour in 2016 as they look to again be involved at the pointy end of the Super Rugby season.
“I think in terms of team a lot of guys have played in those combinations for a few years now so hopefully we can build on that,” he told Beth Newman. “You work as hard as you can to give yourself your best shot in round one and take it from there; we haven’t looked too much past that at this point, mainly because you're just so tired at the end of the day you just want to recover and go home and get into bed.”
For one of Pocock’s teammates in the scrum, Rory Arnold, the aim is also Round One; and gaining selection, as he told his Club’s website.
“I’m putting my case forward to start the first game (against the Hurricanes on 26 February at GIO Stadium) and I won’t be holding back.” Arnold said. “I’ve been working on my set piece, I was happy with it last year but I probably need to be better, especially at lineout time. I want to improve my fitness and play a lot more minutes.”
Finally to the young guns, and two young players at different Clubs who played together in both the Australian Schoolboys side of 2013, and the Australian U20s side of 2014; Ned Hanigan and Lolo Fakaosilea. Both hail from regional centres, and have been speaking with their local newspapers as they build up towards Super Rugby.
Coonamble product Hanigan told Jennifer Hoar of the Daily Liberal that he was surprised to be elevated to a full contract at the Waratahs after being in their extended training squad previously.
"Daryl (Gibson, Waratahs head coach) called me into his office and said 'you've been training well and we want to pull you on full-time',” he said. "I wasn't really expecting it and it has made me think about things being fast-tracked a bit more than I thought. You've got guys like Michael Hooper who have been in there for a long time, so if I get a chance to play alongside them it'll be an absolute honour but there needs to be a lot happen before then.”
For Emerald-product Fakaosilea, who played five games for the Reds in 2015, the target is to play as many matches as possible in 2016. He recently got engaged, and he reflected upon that and also clashing with Rugby royalty last year in an interview with Matthew Holdsworth from the Central Queensland News.
"I ran on as a replacement for Liam Gill and straight into the scrum and I looked up and saw Richie McCaw," Fakaosilea said. "I gave him the smile, almost like a smile when you're checking out a chick or something and he looked at me and said 'you right'. But after the game he came up to me and I admitted I was just star struck. He told me he couldn't believe my age and talent. So I just had to keep his jersey."
Social Supremo:
We couldn’t let the forwards have all the fun this week; Reds scrumhalf Nick Frisby is our Social Supremo with this cracking doppelganger effort (though he does lose a few points for the self-nomination…)
