Eddie banking on Cooper, debutants to boost Wallabies

A host of debutants and the return of Quade Cooper is set to boost the Wallabies when they take on the Springboks in the opening game of the Rugby Championship at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday evening.

Cooper, who has been a constant thorn in the Boks side over the years, is back from an Achilles injury and will give a significant boost to the team, despite this being his first game back in South Africa since 2013.

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During the Wallabies team announcement presser on Thursday morning, head coach Eddie Jones admitted that it was good to have an experienced head like Cooper back and that along with possible debutant Carter Gordon, they were well covered for the game.

“He’s come back into the squad, he’s an experienced player now and he has added his knowledge to the group,” said Jones.

“Particularly watching him work with Carter, who has continuously impressed as well, we know we will get a good 80 minutes out of that number 10 position.”

Uncapped players

Along with Gordon the Wallabies named another three uncapped players in their match 23, with replacement prop Zane Nonggorr and replacement lock Ritchie Arnold also on the bench, while flank Tom Hooper will start in his first game.

Australian co-captain Michael Hooper claimed that the debutants have brought a lot of energy into the team which will help them deal with the altitude factor in Pretoria.

“We will know after the game how we fare. But in terms of our build up we have been focusing on ourselves a hell of a lot,” explained Hooper.

“The debutants have brought in a ton of energy from the day that they walked in and from the time they have been selected it seems to have gone up a notch.

“We are away from home and we want to rip in and having guys like that in the squad is probably where we want to be.”

Home crowd

Jones also echoed his captain’s sentiments, while stating he wasn’t worried about the fact that the Boks had split their squads and that they had to be ready for the challenge of facing them in front of their home crowd on Saturday.

“We are focussed very much on ourselves. This is a new team, we have come together and we want to play our style of rugby,” said Jones.

“We knew that whatever team that runs out in Pretoria on Saturday is going to play with the pride of South Africa behind them and we need to meet that challenge.”