Wallabies flanker Tom Hooper insists NRL great Brett Hodgson is not to blame for the team’s alarming defensive issues during the Rugby Championship.
Wooden spooners Australia copped 115 points in three losses to South Africa, Argentina and New Zealand and have little time to fix their shortcomings before Saturday’s Bledisloe Cup return match against the All Blacks in Dunedin.
Hodgson was hired as defence coach by Wallabies boss Eddie Jones in February despite having limited experience in rugby.
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“Brett’s a hard working and detailed young coach who will be a great asset to the Wallabies and the coaching staff,” Jones said at the time.
“He’s worked under some great coaching mentors like Gus Gould and Tim Sheens in his time as a player and a coach, so he’s well schooled and I know he’ll give his best to the job of producing the best defence in the world.”
Hooper, who has played just two Tests, was hardly going to throw Hodgson under the bus when speaking to reporters from Dunedin but maintained “it’s not the framework that’s the problem” in leaking points.
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“He’s given us a really good defensive system to work with,” Hooper said.
“It’s just our ability to execute and make those one on one tackles. As with every different coach they have their own flavour. You could see quite often we were making good reads defensively and we had good numbers there and it was just executing the tackles.”
Hooper said the vastly experienced Jones remained upbeat despite the 0-3 start to the season.
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“He knows we’re all hurting, he knows we’re all humans and when you get beaten by a score like that (38-7) you’re not coming off with a smile on your face,” Hooper said.
“He knows we all feel it and he’s going to channel that anger onto the training pitch and make sure we get quality work done in this week. And that’s how we’re going to present a better performance.”
Meanwhile, All Blacks hooker Codie Taylor has lauded the outstanding form of lock Scott Barrett, whose crunching hit on Tate McDermott set the tone for the MCG mauling.
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“Scooter, he probably came up with that plan himself,” Taylor said.
“He is just one of those men that just doesn’t rest. He is always looking for opportunities.
“He saw one there and then took it. I think the world knows not to throw it off the top when they are 5m out, now. Scooter probably couldn’t believe it was happening at the time. And then it did. Again, it just goes to show the nature of Scooter and the way he is playing at the moment.”
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