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Michael Hooper won’t make his Australia rugby sevens debut in Perth as anticipated, with the previous Wallaby’s first outing delayed in successful to his Olympic aspirations.
The 32-year-old was controversially ignored for final yr’s World Cup within the 15-a-side format, and after asserting his change to sevens in November had been eyeing off the January 26-28 match in Western Australia as his first step on the highway to the Paris Video games that start in July.
However the 125-Check veteran’s first look has been pushed again till a minimum of the Vancouver-Los Angeles leg of the world sequence, starting in late February.
Coach John Manenti stated the previous flanker wanted extra time to adapt to the high-octane sevens workload.
“We have determined a take a conservative strategy along with his transition to the world sequence and we are going to search for him to participate in additional tournaments in a while within the yr,” Manenti advised rugby.com.au.
“We’re wanting ahead to seeing what he can add to this system within the coming weeks and months.”
A debut in Canada would imply Hooper has 5 tournaments to press his case for a Video games berth.
That may align with French Check star and Olympics aspirant Antoine Dupont, who can also be slated to make his sevens debut in Vancouver.
Australia’s males gained a maiden world sequence in 2022 underneath Manenti, who returned to the job after teaching the nation’s ladies on the Tokyo Olympics.
They’re at present sitting sixth on the world-series desk after two occasions, shedding the ultimate to ladder-leading Argentina in Cape City in December to shut out 2023.
Australia will play Eire, Nice Britain and the USA of their males’s pool fixtures in Perth.
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