Rising Springbok talent Ethan Hooker says the team is still focused on winning the Rugby Championship despite a poor start to the competition.
Rising Springbok talent Ethan Hooker said the team’s ultimate goal was to retain their Rugby Championship title, after they lost their second match of the competition, against the All Blacks at Eden Park in Auckland, over the past weekend.
After just three games the Boks have already lost more matches than they did while winning the title last season, when they were defeated just once, by a solitary point by Argentina.
They are thus now in the last chance saloon, needing a win over the All Blacks in Wellington this coming weekend to realistically keep themselves in the hunt.
All four teams are still in the running, with the All Blacks topping the log on 10 points, followed by Australia on nine, while the Boks and Argentina are both locked on five points each and on the same points difference.
But if the All Blacks and Wallabies can pick up second consecutive home wins over the Boks and Los Pumas respectively, it could turn the competition into a two horse race.
For the 22-year-old Hooker, who only got his second ever taste of international rugby when he came off the bench on Saturday, playing against the Boks’ biggest rivals in New Zealand was an incredible experience, especially at their fortress Eden Park.
Surreal experience
“It was a very surreal experience for me. Just being at Eden Park, the vibe and energy was just unbelievable, and it is such a privilege to now say I have played a Test match there,” said Hooker.
Speaking about the loss and looking ahead to the next game at the “Cake Tin” in Wellington, Hooker added: “We obviously try and win every game that we play, but we just have to take the learnings from this game into next week and hopefully be better.
“We did lean towards more of a kicking game (because of the rain), but there’s no excuse for that because weather is just part of the game and that’s one of the obstacles we just have to get over.
“The ultimate goal for us is to win the Rugby Championship, so we all have to get on the same page this week, grind it out and hopefully in the next match we can come out on top.”
Despite having enjoyed a solid cameo in the past weekend’s game, Hooker may be one of the unfortunate players to miss out on the match 23 for the coming weekend, with the Boks expected to make a few changes to the game day squad.
