Why a quiet country boy has been trusted with the famous Wallabies ...
His size may have prompted a second look, but judging by his friendly demeanour and quiet nature working the register at a university coffee cart, none of the students would have guessed Tom Hooper’s nickname.
If you were watching the young Brumbies academy player cut people in half later that night at Tuggeranong Vikings training, however, then you’d be a lot better equipped.
“He just throws himself at people full bore, and he will more often than not win those collisions,” said Hooper’s schoolboy teammate Yool Yool. “He was doing it our age, at school. That’s why he ended up getting the nickname ‘Axe’ down there.”
For the record, the Vikings actually dubbed Hooper “Meat-axe” but you get the drift. There are two sides to the polite kid from Bathurst and all Australian rugby fans will be hoping its the latter personality that comes to the fore when he plays in his first Bledisloe Cup Test at the MCG.
In only his second Test, Hooper has been handed the enormous task of replacing Michael Hooper (no relation) and Fraser McReight in the fabled Wallabies No.7 against the All Blacks; an assignment all the more difficult given he’s only played openside once in his short professional career.
Indeed, due to injury this year, it will be only the eighth time the 22-year-old has played in the back row, and just his 12th start in a modest 24 professional games.
Tom Hooper will wear the no.7 jersey for Australia at the MCG.Credit: Getty
But try to find someone who doubts Hooper rising to the occasion and you’ll be looking for a while.
“He has a great engine, so he goes all day,” says veteran Brumbies and Australia A forwards coach Laurie Fisher.
“He can put himself over the ball. He can survive well and he is quite happy and good at the poach, and good at the counter ruck, and gets around the field well.
“I liked him from the first time I saw him. He came down off the farm and he was a big lump of a lad. He was maybe 126 kilos and a big block of beef.”
Tom Hooper playing for Australia schools and under 18s in 2018.Credit: Getty
Hooper joined the Brumbies in 2019 after impressing as a schoolboy at St Stanislaus’ College in Bathurst. In 2017, Stannies won the ISA competition in an undefeated season, with a team that produced Hooper, future Aussie sevens speedster Yool and two other Super Rugby players in Bo Abra and Hunter Ward.
“He was always in the gym early in the morning, more than anyone in the team, for sure. He really worked hard on his game and that’s what we all remember him for him,” Yool said.
“In fact, seeing how hard he worked really impacted on everyone, he made us work hard, he set the standard.”
In 2018, Hooper made the Australian Schools and under-18s side, alongside Joseph Suallii, Tolu Koula and Billy Pollard, and they beat New Zealand across the ditch.
Australia A and then-Junior Wallabies coach Jason Gilmore was the tour with coach Peter Hewat.
“He had a huge work rate, that’s the thing that stood out with him,” Gilmore said. “Even though he was a big lad, he had a big engine on him. He just had good skills. He got us a couple of really big turnovers on that tour, and he reads the game very well.
“He was always driven. He has always been a really self-assured style of kid. A country boy, works hard.”
Ask people about Hooper and “big engine” is, without fail, always in the first handful of descriptors.
After being signed to the Brumbies academy, Hooper impressed Fisher initially with the fact he was always in the gym, doing extras. And then he began watching him on the field.
“He had a natural engine. It is so important for big men if they have a natural engine, then you don’t have to spend huge amounts of time getting them to a level where they can actually pick up their game,” Fisher said.
“The more good attributes the person brings naturally, then you only have to fine tune, you don’t have to get him fit. If he has the engine and the work ethic, and he demonstrated those things early on, you only have to coach them then.
Tom Hooper in the Wallabies’ First Nations strip, which they will wear at the MCG.Credit: Getty
“Whenever there is conditioning, he is pushing himself to the maximum and he is always up the front of the forwards and he is always encouraging people. He is never cruising.
“He has done a lot of work, and trimmed off the excess (weight) and increased his power output, and maintained his capacity to get around the park.”
After debuting in 2021, Hooper evolved from a 125 kilogram lock used off the bench for the Brumbies to a versatile 119kg middle rower, who began playing no.6 last year.
The Brumbies see Hooper as a future captain of the club and had big plans for 2023, but a foot injury in the trials sidelined him for the first 10 rounds.
After his return, Fisher and Brumbies coach Stephen Larkham shifted Hooper to no.7 to meet the Chiefs in the Super Rugby semi-final, and though the ACT men went down, the youngster’s combative performance against Kiwi rivals impressed Eddie Jones immensely.
Hooper debuted for the Wallabies at no.6 in South Africa, and his younger brother Lachlan wore the same number for the Junior Wallabies against Ireland the next day, also in South Africa.
A shoulder injury in Pretoria saw Hooper sidelined but by then he’d picked up another believer in Jones, who not only gave him another chance but this week handed him one of the Wallabies’ most famous jerseys.
It’s a chance for the Wallabies to trial a bigger body in the role, with Hooper standing at 1.99m and 119kg. And Fisher is confident the Axe will step up.
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“He has good attributes for a seven, just not as quick as a Hooper or McReight, but you are not going to be turning over half a dozen balls against the Kiwis, I don’t think,” he said.
“So you might be looking at a bit more from your seven, you start to think about maul attack and maul defence, and think about winning lineout. You think about a bigger body on the ball carry and on the gain line, and a bigger stopper, so maybe they’re attributes that might come in very handy on Saturday night.”
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