Wallabies legend backs Hooper’s Olympics dream, savages Rugby Australia

Former Wallabies star Drew Mitchell has backed Michael Hooper’s quest to represent Australia in rugby sevens at the Paris Olympics after the former skipper made an encouraging start to his career in Hong Kong.

Hooper didn’t play huge minutes in his debut event but he did leave his mark with some brutal shots in defence that were the hallmark of his 125 Tests for Australia.

Mitchell was there to see his good mate play, with Hooper still getting used to the breakneck speed of play, with the next event in Singapore starting on May 3.

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“It’s one thing to train for it for a long time and feel like you know what you’re going to be faced with, but there’s nothing like game experience, so it was nice for him to get out there,” Mitchell said.

“He’ll be better for it over the next couple of tournaments, but it was really nice to see him out there in jersey 77 which I thought was a nice touch.

“I think he’s got time to be ready (for the Olympics). He’s just got so much experience.

“He’ll definitely take a lot from the Hong Kong experience. There are things that he did well and things that he’ll want to improve on, but that’s the nature of playing your first tournament.

“As fit as all the players are in rugby, it’s such a different kind of fitness in sevens. Say the ball is in play for a couple of minutes, that doesn’t seem like a long time, but with the amount of space there is and how much ground they have to cover, you can get into a real hole.

“Having that effort on effort is the hardest thing, and everything in sevens is amplified because there’s not a lot of room to get anything wrong.”

Wallabies legend backs Hooper’s Olympics dream, savages Rugby Australia

Mitchell was speaking at the launch of the Aqua Rugby event at Darling Harbour that started on Thursday and will entertain fans in Sydney through until Saturday with its fast-paced action and unique experience on the water.

The former international winger loved what he saw from Aqua Rugby chief executive Jimmy Galvin, but he hasn’t been as impressed with what’s been going on with the Wallabies for the past few years on and off the field.

“I think we just need to steady the ship,” Mitchell said, hopeful that coaching changes can save the team after a horror World Cup campaign under Eddie Jones.

“It’s probably been a bit turbulent for the last five years. There have been a lot of changes in key positions – whether that’s coaches or in the boardroom – so I think we need some stability and better decision making.

“The appointments that have been made recently look good, but at the same time, we’ve got a lot of people talking about the golden decade ahead of us, but it’s only a golden decade if you take advantage of the opportunities that are presented.

“We haven’t so far, but hopefully we can turn that around. We haven’t performed well on the field for a long time, but off the field we’ve probably been worse for the best part of the past 20 years.

“That coincides and I think one probably feeds the other, so we need to get better at both.”