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Cape Town - Wallabies captain Michael Hooper believes a pre-Bledisloe Cup warm-up game is a great idea to get his side closer to the All Blacks in terms of game readiness.
New Zealand destroyed Australia 54-34 in their last test. A strong second-half showing from the Wallabies will give them hope going into this weekend’s game.
The Brumbies were the only Australian team to reach the quarter-finals of Super Rugby. This gave coach Michael Cheika and his squad a month to prepare for the Bledisloe Cup clash but no warm-up matches took place.
The All Blacks used their annual “game of three halves” against New Zealand provincial opponents eight days before the test as preparation, despite having three teams involved in finals action.
“It definitely has some merit,” Hooper told Fox Sports.
“I don’t think an in-house game is the way forward.
“If you are practising and using calls, there’s no point playing a game where the other team knows them too.
“But against another team?
“We did it back in 2013 against a club on the Sunshine Coast and it wasn’t productive at all because we were too dominant.
“If you could find an Aussie Baa-Baas or something like that, then there might be some good merit in an idea like that.
