It was very clear being out on the Canberra Stadium pitch post-match that the Brumbies players felt the hurt of their final-round loss to the Crusaders immediately.
Their whole goal for 2025, having run third in Super Rugby Pacific last season and fourth the two years before that, was to make the top two. For 30 years, Super Rugby has been almost impossible to win from outside the top two, and home ground advantage through the finals is worth so much more than just not having to travel.
Going into the Crusaders game, coach Stephen Larkham said outright, “we’re not going to leave anything out for this game.” No holding back on plays and tactics they might use through the finals. The Brumbies were throwing everything in their kit bag at the perennial Kiwi contenders in order to secure that top-two place.
History already shows they fell short. The 31-33 loss to probably their biggest rival from across the Tasman consigned them to third yet again, with the period since their last top-two finish in 2004 extending into a 22nd year.
But while out on the field last Friday there were stunned faces and guys largely processing the result on their own, the reaction a few days on was more pragmatic and less doomsday.
“We’ve really looked in and really just stayed internal around our review and what we could have done better,” hybrid lock-back-rower Tom Hooper told me early this week.
“There’s plenty of fixes there, but there’s also plenty of good stuff and plenty of good stuff we’ve been doing all year. So we take a lot of confidence into this weekend, playing a team we’ve played before and we took a lot of lessons out of the first Hurricanes game, so now we’re keen to rip-roar into them again this weekend.”
We kind of played them into the form that they are in now. It’s all our fault!
That 35-29 defeat at home by the Hurricanes at the end of April was the visitors’ first win in Canberra since their quarter-final victory in 2017, and came the week after the Wellington-based side played out an extra-time draw with Western Force in Perth. It was the first of five straight victories for the ‘Canes, who come into the finals in maybe the best form of any of the remaining six sides.
“That sort of started their run, didn’t it?” Hooper laughs. “We kind of played them into the form that they are in now. It’s all our fault!”
“We’ve got to make sure we attack this weekend with the same kind of diligence we attacked that week, but we’ve just got to be a bit more accurate with holding on to the ball,” he added.
“We know how physical they are in defence and on the other side of the ball as well. Those contact areas are really important from a forwards’ point of view and it’s important that we get into every contest.”
In that regard, the Brumbies couldn’t have had much better preparation for the Hurricanes than the Crusaders last Friday.
The two New Zealand sides make a similar percentage of dominant tackles, are both ranked in the top three for turnovers won (the Brumbies are fourth), both play wide roughly 10 per cent of the time and both play past the second receiver nearly 10 per cent of time.
“All those Kiwi teams, especially the four that made the top six, have very similar game plans,” Hooper says. “Outstanding backs, outstanding back-rowers who put pressure on that breakdown. We’re going to have to have our wits about us and every chance we get, we’re just going to roar into those rucks as best we can.”
Back in Round 11, the Hurricanes had great success in getting outside the Brumbies defensive line speed out wide, and they do throw the highest percentage of long passes of all pro teams around the rugby world in 2025. But the Crusaders are right there with them, and the Brumbies coped with their width pretty well last Friday.
Ultimately if we can get more turnovers than them and minimise the amount they get, we’re going to go a long way to winning this game.
Similarly, the Crusaders loose trio of Ethan Blackadder, Tom Christie and Christian Lio-Willie gave the Brumbies a live reminder of what they’re in for when facing Brad Shields, DuPlessis Kirifi and Peter Lakai this weekend.
“Absolutely. They’re heavy on the breakdown,” Hooper says of the Hurricanes trio. “They rip into that aspect of the game and they make sure that they’re always after it. It’s something that we’ve really got to be cautious about holding onto the ball, but we’ve also got to give it (breakdown pressure) back to them. We don’t just want to be like, ‘oh, this is one of their weapons’.
“We want to weaponize that as our own and making sure that we’re attacking their breakdown, too. Ultimately if we can get more turnovers than them and minimise the amount they get, we’re going to go a long way to winning this game.”
Since confirming his move to Premiership side Exeter in the new year, Hooper has enjoyed what plenty of pundits and the Brumbies coaching and playing group happily describe as a career-best season.
Hooper and France-bound NSW Waratahs No.8 Langi Gleeson were invited and then uninvited to Joe Schmidt’s first Wallabies camp as their respective news broke in January, but both turned in incredibly consistent performances all season and were this week named in an all-Australian back row in the Super Rugby Pacific Team of the Year.
Hooper ended up fourth in the Player of the Year voting, but ahead of Carlo Tizzano, Fraser McReight and Gleeson as the highest-polling Australian player. And 15 votes behind runaway winner, Ardie Savea.
“Oh, he won it about five rounds ago, he’s a freak,” laughs Hooper at mention of arguably the best player in the world currently.
“When you talk to experienced guys in the team like Slips (James Slipper) or Allan (Ala’alatoa), they just say, ‘if you do your job for the team, then everything else will sort itself out’. At the end of the day, I’m just trying to do my job and rip into every ruck, every carry that I can.”
‘Mate, you’re not picked in the seven jersey because we want you to be Michael Hooper, you’re picked there because we want you to be Tom Hooper’.
Hooper has ripped into every ruck with the ease of a player unencumbered from the burden of trying to work out his future. Like Gleeson, and fellow Exeter-bound Brumbies team-mate Len Ikitau, Hooper is in the ideal mental space: the ability to play with complete freedom.
“Anytime you’ve got those overarching contract questions over your head, it is hard to park that to the side. Everyone says they do, but it’s always just lingering in the background. So certainty is one thing, whether that’s in you staying in the same location next year or you’re leaving. At least you’ve got that kind of end point.
“But for me it was more just about Canberra’s been so good to me, so I’m just going to give everything I can back. Hopefully, the fans have seen that all I’m trying to do is just put my body on the line. Whether that results in a good performance or a semi-par performance, I’m going out there and just trying my hardest, giving them everything that they deserve because this club and this community has given me so much, so it’s the least I can do.”
What Hooper will take to Sandy Park is a new versatility. He’s played multiple games in the number five, six and eight jerseys for Brumbies this season, and embraced the subtle differences in each position every time.
He can now admit it’s something he was not equipped for when thrust into international rugby by Eddie Jones in that ill-fated 2023 Rugby World Cup season.
“It’s something I learned in my first year for the Wallabies,” he recalls. “I got chucked in the number seven jersey, I tried soak tackling and poaching everything, and at 6ft 6in you’re probably not going to get too many poaches at international level.
“It was actually Quade Cooper who pulled me aside at half-time [against New Zealand] and said, ‘Mate, you’re not picked in the seven jersey because we want you to be Michael Hooper, you’re picked there because we want you to be Tom Hooper. We don’t need a seven for this game, we need an extra second-row, that’s why you’re in that jersey’.
“It was an interesting perspective on things, and so now any time I’ve worn a different jersey this year, I just know what my game is. It was a really important lesson for me to learn at that time in my career, and now I’m more settled in my preparation and nothing really changes week to week. I can just rip in on the weekend and do my job for the team.”
We’re not the most powerful blokes. But if we can go 70% of our optimum for 80 minutes of the game, it averages out to a pretty decent performance.
Hooper gives credit to former Brumbies and Wallabies flanker Scott Fardy, who he says has been invaluable in advising him how to develop the physicality and endurance to play in both the second and back rows at provincial and international level (after being linked up by coaching legend Laurie Fisher).
“He used this really cool terminology, which was the 70% rule,” Hooper explains. “We’re not the fastest or most athletic blokes. We’re not the most powerful blokes. But if we can go 70% of our optimum for 80 minutes of the game, it averages out to a pretty decent performance.
“So that’s what we do, just keep moving. The Land Cruiser in the low gear, keep it going,” he laughs, reminding me his NSW country upbringing is never too far below the surface.
Whether he’s allowed to show if his best-ever Super Rugby season form translates to international rugby will be up to Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt – who has shown himself open to the idea of picking the best players in form for the upcoming Lions Series, regardless of where they might be playing in 2026.
Hooper knows he can’t control that, but remains convinced his two-year stint with Exeter can make him a better player. It was part of the reason he jumped at the chance to test himself in the Premiership.
“When I was having that interview, Rob Baxter, their director of rugby, said to me, ‘what’s your ambitions?’ And I said to be a Wallaby, but not just be a Wallaby, be a great Wallaby. And he’s really supportive of that. So, he wants me over there for two years.
“If I love it, I might stay. I’m not going to rule that out. But I do want to come back and really make sure that whether it’s a Brumbies jersey, a Wallabies jersey, whatever I’m doing on home soil is impressive and it’s something that I can be proud of. I think it’s a massive opportunity for me to grow my game, however long I spend over there.”
‘Mate, your best friend’s going to be Amazon because we have that many socials. I’m ordering costumes left, right and centre, so make sure you’ve got your Amazon points up’.
The strong Brumbies links reeled him in for Exeter. Nic White enjoyed two successful seasons with the Chiefs before returning to Australia and ACT, Scott Sio is scrummaging as well as ever in Devon currently, and centre Tamati Tua has just completed his first season in the south-west of England after making the move from Canberra. Hooper and Ikitau arriving later this year only strengthens those links.
“Yeah, 100 per cent. Exeter Brumbies, they’re calling it these days,” Hooper laughs. “I’m keen to go over there and just embrace the whole culture of the club. It’s a very similar feel to Canberra, maybe a bit colder, but a very homey, family-orientated club.”
“It certainly helps having that familiarity of people in the squad. I called Scotty (Sio) before I made the decision and asked him what he thought. He said, ‘Mate, your best friend’s going to be Amazon because we have that many socials. I’m ordering costumes left, right and centre, so make sure you’ve got your Amazon points up’.
“I’m keen to do a few costume parties and play lots of good footy. You want to rip in, you want to do the best you can. It’s definitely an appealing club and I can’t wait to go.”
