David Pocock will face his biggest test of career when the Wallabies take on the All Blacks in the Rugby World Cup final at Twickenham on Saturday.
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The Wallabies’ breakdown specialist appeared before the media this morning in the Lensbury Hotel sporting two hugely swollen black eyes, the clear marker of a broken nose.
“It probably looks worse than it is”, Australia’s breakdown king said, trying not to grimace. It was a bit sore at the time but it’s fine now. Ahead of their semifinal victory over the Aussies four years ago, Pocock was identified as a major threat and was largely nullified by an awe-inspiring performance from the All Blacks’ pack, who ran at him all day. It’s a great rivalry and clearly we play each other a few times but it’s pretty special to play each other in a World Cup final.
Having been instrumental in Australia securing a record-equalling fourth appearance in the final, Pocock insists the occasion would be complete if Attenborough could able to attend. The Zimbabwe-born eco warrior sees the bigger picture like no-one else in his sport.
The Springboks are not France and as the rain poured down for only the second time on this tournament (in the games I have seen and I have seen majority but if I missed a shower in your vicinity, forgive me, please) Twickenham was a very different place to Cardiff with the roof closed. “It’s there to be enjoyed, it can offer so much to us, but there’s certainly a lot more to life than chasing a rugby ball”.
Like chaining himself to mining equipment for 10 hours as part of a demonstration against plans to open a coal mine in a national forest back home. “Our politicians aren’t going to do it and it’s all of our futures”.
Pocock is also committed to social change and he and his partner Emma pointedly refuse to tie the knot until gay marriage becomes legal across Australia.
Then there was the match he stopped this year to formally complain about an opponent using a homophobic slur.
The Australian back row watched the 89-year-old’s “Africa” series while recovering from Sunday’s semi-final win over Argentina, a game which left Pocock bruised and battered.
“I’m a big fan of wildlife docos, particularly David Attenborough – he’s a big hero of mine”, said Pocock.
“I want to make sure the whole team performance is good and I thought it was on the weekend”.
“This is David Pocock, although it doesn’t really look like him at the moment”.
“It’s one of those things, it’s getting towards the end of the season so you’ve played a lot of rugby and I think your body gets used to recovering”, he told a news conference on Tuesday.
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“You don’t like giving those up but in terms of the guys scrambled exceptionally well. I’ve always said I don’t want rugby to define me”.
