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Rugby Championship, Michael Hooper leave, mental health, explained, Australia return to play

When Michael Hooper withdrew less than 48 hours before the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship opener in Argentina, it shocked the world.

An outpouring of support was issued across the globe from Will Carling to Karmichael Hunt, as it was revealed that Hooper’s “mindset” was not right and he would miss the Test and fly home.

Yet for those closer to the situation, it was not as surprising.

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Hooper has been pushed to the point of breaking for some time, with few others afforded time in the saddle in his position despite the emergence of talented players like Fraser McReight.

Instead, with precious victories and coaching living by results, the Wallabies – and Super Rugby franchises, perhaps with the exception of the Brumbies and recently the Waratahs – have rolled out their premier players for fear of failure.

A talismanic leader, Hooper had not only been holding the Wallabies together on and off the field for years, he had been putting his head in few places dare go.

The second youngest Wallabies captain of all time, Hooper was the youngest player of all time to play 100 Tests.

Last year, he surpassed George Gregan’s (59) record of Tests captained last year, and he is just 18 shy of the 1999 World Cup-winner’s national record of 139.

Michael Hooper withdrew less than 48 hours before the Wallabies' Rugby Championship opener.  (Photo by May Bailey/Getty Images)
Michael Hooper withdrew less than 48 hours before the Wallabies’ Rugby Championship opener. (Photo by May Bailey/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

All this at the tender age of 30, where he has been handed the captaincy by the past three Wallabies coaches after first being capped by another, Robbie Deans, in 2012.

At some point, age, or at least the sheer minutes he had spent on the playing field, he was going to catch up with him.

Of Hooper’s 121 Tests, he has started in 115 of them and gone the full distance in 95 of those Tests. He has missed just 11 Tests, including the weekend’s 41-26 victory over Michael Cheika’s Argentina, since his debut against Scotland off the bench in Newcastle.

By comparison, Richie McCaw, who started in 141 of his 148 Tests, missed 37 Tests during his decorated career.

Interestingly, in the four years before he retired following the World Cup final in 2015, McCaw started 44 of 45 Tests during the period but only played the full 80 minutes in 33 of those Tests.

But, as age, his durability and the weight of captaining the All Blacks for so many years caught up to him, he missed nine Tests during that golden period.

New Zealand Rugby also afforded him a sabbatical in late 2012 and saw him make his comeback in mid-2013. He didn’t play, but rather cooled his heels.

In May, Hooper laughed off suggestions he could make it through to the home World Cup in 2027 by saying he was more likely to be having a “beer” in the stands at that point.

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But it’s not just the home World Cup that feels like an eternity away for Hooper, it’s the 2025 British and Irish Lions series and, indeed, next year’s World Cup too.

It’s believed after years bouncing back up on a Sunday, the heavy knocks are starting to take their toll.

Recently, Hooper played in Brisbane against England despite being struck down by the flu during the week.

When he copped an early hit after being bounced by Ellis Genge, there was an element of concern around whether he had taken another head knock.

A week later, with the Wallabies’ injury toll stretching to double figures, he backed up for the series decider despite having a crook back.

Earlier in the year, Hooper copped a high tackle from a replacement Crusaders forward, which drew a red card, and he spent two weeks on the sidelines.

Privately the Waratahs and Australian officials were filthy because the culprit, Hamish Dalzell, had also been penalized for a high shot moments earlier that didn’t earn any further punishment.

Concussion is something Hooper is particularly cognizant of.

It’s also understood the Wallabies are being belted on the training field.

It is unclear when Hooper will next play. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)Source: Getty Images

Numerous sources, including at Rugby Australia, have also raised questions about the strength and conditioning methods being used under Dean Benton.

Questions have arisen after a number of players have suffered injuries at training in recent months.

There is a belief that the current group needs to be whipped into shape because they are not up to Test match standards.

For now Hooper, who arrived back in Australia on Sunday, is expected to rest and spend time with his family.

No timeframe has been given when the No.7 will next play.

Sources believe he will miss the home Tests against the Springboks.

Fortunately the Wallabies have discovered they can play without Hooper and succeed.

But they might have learned too that humans are not machines.

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Categories
Entertainment

Queen Elizabeth’s heartbreak as her childhood friend dies, aged 97

The Queen has been dealt another devastating blow with the loss of a close childhood friend just months after the death of her husband Prince Philip.

Lady Myra Butter, a cousin to the Duke of Edinburgh, was a childhood friend of the Queen and part of her inner circle. She died aged 97 in her London home de ella on July 29, according to a death notice published in UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

speaking to The Telegraph In 2021, Lady Butter revealed how she first came to know the Queen as a child and opened up about their time together in the 1st Buckingham Palace Company of Girl Guides, when it launched in 1937.

“(Buckingham Palace) got hold of some girls to be part of the thing to make it more fun,” she said.

“In the Guides and the Brownies it was a real mixture, which was really nice, some friends, friends of (the family), and all the people in the Royal mews, their children, they were Brownies and Guides. Just a normal sort of pack really.”

According to the article, the Queen also used to swim with Lady Butter, who once described the monarch as having a “very good sense of humor which has gone on for all her life”.

Lady Butter was born in Edinburgh in 1925 to Sir Harold Wernher and the great-great granddaughter of Russia’s Nicholas I, Countess Anastasia “Zia” Torby.

Her death notice read: “Myra Alice, Lady (CVO) died peacefully on Friday 29th July 2022 in London aged 97. Beloved wife of the late Major Sir David Butter. Adored mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Private family funeral in Scotland”.

Ingrid Seward, author of the book Prince Philip Revealed, told magazine Newsweek: “Lady Butter was wonderful. She is a daughter of the Wernher family and the Queen and Philip were very, very friendly with them and so she was ella the Queen Mother”.

Her death is understood to come as another devastating blow to the Queen who lost her husband in 2021.

The Duke of Edinburgh, who had been married to the Queen for 73 years, died at Windsor Castle in June last year.

Following the Duke’s death, Lady Butter – who also had a longstanding friendship with her cousin, the prince – described Her Majesty’s sense of loss as “incalculable”.

He had dedicated his life to the Queen and sadly died just before his 100th birthday.

In the past the Queen regularly called the Duke her “constant strength” and “guide”.

The pair was described as “love matched” and married in 1947 at Westminster Abbey.

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