Michael Hooper of the Wallabies looks on during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.
Michael Hooper of the Wallabies looks on during The Rugby Championship and Bledisloe Cup match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies. Photo / Getty Images.
Michael Hooper has admitted the Wallabies' hefty defeat in the second Bledisloe Cup Test "bloody hurt" but the skipper hopes his side can use the loss as motivation to put on a "complete performance" in Perth.
The All Blacks have already claimed the Bledisloe Cup for a 19th consecutive year,having twice defeated the Wallabies at Auckland's Eden Park last month.
In the second of those clashes, Australia leaked more points than in any previous meeting with its Antipodean adversary.
The loss was hard for Hooper and co. to stomach, and the long wait between the second and third Tests hasn't helped them recover from it.
New Zealand pulled out of the original Bledisloe date due to Covid concerns, forcing the Perth clash to be postponed from August 28 to this Sunday.
"When you have a defeat you want to get back on the park really quick which has been tricky about this block, because it seems like a long time since we've been able to get on the field and turn things around. That's been hard," Hooper admitted.
"You want to play and you want to back that up. But you've got to try and shake the hurt feeling and turn it into motivation."
Hooper said while the Wallabies endured a "brutal" review session following the 57-22 loss, the side was careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater after Bledisloe II.
All Blacks centre Anton Lienert-Brown runs at Wallabies captain Michael Hooper in the New Zealand and Australia rugby test match. Photo / Jason Oxenham.
"Certainly about particular times in the game. Let's not forget there was a really good 45 minutes there. So it's not like we're starting from scratch.
"In parts of the game we were well below average. And that showed on the scoreboard."
Hooper knows avoiding a clean sweep will require an 80-minute performance.
"There are 10-15 minute periods where we compound errors and we take our foot off the gas, and that's hurt us significantly against these guys," he said.
"So we need a complete performance and deliver throughout the 80."
Hooper is hoping that the Wallabies can take their strong start from the second Bledisloe Test into the third, where they will be bolstered by recalled stars Samu Kerevi and Izack Rodda.
Despite speculation he too would be called into the side, Quade Cooper has once again been overlooked for selection.
Hooper confirmed Cooper would travel with the Wallabies to Queensland for the remainder of the Rugby Championship, but James O'Connor's imminent arrival into camp means spots in the halves will be even more hotly contested in the Sunshine State.
Kerevi looms as a particularly significant addition to Sunday's team. Since last representing the Wallabies in 2019, the barnstorming centre has spent two years playing for the Suntory Sungoliath in Japan. Most recently, he made his Olympic debut with the Australian rugby sevens team at the Tokyo Games.
Kerevi had a field day in the Wallabies' last Western Australian outing, famously steamrollering All Blacks fullback Beauden Barrett on his way to setting up a Nic White try.
Hooper hopes for that kind of aggression around the ruck zones on Sunday.
"We've got to deliver around the ruck and have clean ball for our backs," he said.
"We have a lot of firepower in the backs if we can get the ball in their hands and then play smart rugby in the right areas of the field."
