Michael Hooper is excited about the prospect of facing a host of his Wallabies teammates as the NSW Waratahs continue to build for Friday's blockbuster against the ACT Brumbies.
Hooper is one of 13 Waratahs who were selected in the first Wallabies squad of 2023.
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Similarly, the Brumbies also had 13 selections in Dave Rennie's last camp before the arrival of Eddie Jones, with the sledging starting from both sides in the build-up.
“The banter has already started. I’ve already had a couple of texts between myself and the Brumbies guys.
“I said ‘go the Tahs’ and the message I got back from Nic White, it was a photo of me in a Brumbies jersey (laughs), I had nothing and just went back with the clap hands.
“These games are like Test matches between the two teams. It’s a big match-up and the games we all want to play.”
Hooper is one of several players from each side who will come into the game with no trial experience under his belt.
This doesn't concern the former Wallabies skipper, who believes he has the necessary experience to deal with the 'Test-like' intensity.
"When I had that time off last year it was a very similar amount of time to when I played in the Scotland Test, so it was about three and a half months or just under that," he said.
"It’s been about the same time since I played against Ireland now rolling into this one so it's very doable...I know I’m going to be blowing this game. It's going to be hard, there's going to be times where I've got the hands on the hips and head back and sucking in seagulls like everyone. I’ll have to dig deep at times, but it's those times that are fun with these matchups.
"I feel fresh. I guess part of the benefit of playing for a while is you get to understand where your body’s at and what you need and then also working with different people...
"I'm trying to pick (Nick Lumley, head of S &C) brain on how I can get gains with where I'm at. He's (been) over in Europe, there's a lot of players who are pushing plus-30 into their late 30s. I'm only 31 at the moment so how I can make gains within that and try to push myself in different directions, so that's actually exciting. The moment I get stagnant is probably the moment that I'll stop enjoying it, so I’m trying to find new things and new little nuggets that I could pick up and grow on."
Hooper's work rate is legendary and this pre-season has been no different in assistant coach Jason Gilmore's mind.
The Australia A coach offered an insight into the type of leader he is as Hooper looks to inspire the Waratahs to a good performance to start the year.
“He’s been unreal,” Gilmore said.
“Those boys that didn’t play trials had a really tough session on Friday. They were split up into different groups so ‘Hoops’ was working with (Dave) Porecki and he’d finished his training session, most of the other group were still going with their session so he just jumped in with the other boys off his own back.
“He’d already done his (session) and jumped into another just to get that extra rep and really led the boys strongly.
“You can tell the closer its got to round one, Hoops has been really starting to shine with his leadership and go-forward. He’ll be ready to go.”
