A Zimbabwean kid who grew up wanting to be a Springbok might just be the Wallabies’ key weapon in trying to win the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
“I’m a great admirer of Pocock, he’s a fabulous player with an extraordinarily strong will to win,” Peter FitzSimons, says. “He’s got this volcano of desire in him to win the match and he puts absolutely everything in to it.”
FitzSimons, having played for the Wallabies in the late 1980s, knows a thing or two about rugby. The author, who has written biographies of Charles Kingsford Smith, Douglas Mawson, Ned Kelly and Steve Waugh, also knows a thing or two about great leaders, about uniquely strong men. David Pocock fits both those categories.
There are few individuals in Australian rugby, let alone Australian sport, like Pocock. His life story reads like an unfinished Hollywood movie. He grew up on a farm in Zimbabwe idolising South African forward Bob Skinstad but at 14 his family was forced off their farm and they migrated to Brisbane. A schoolboy sports star, Pocock joined the Force in 2006 and made his Super Rugby debut at just 18. His rise was meteoric – in 2008 he became a Wallaby and in both 2010 and 2011 he was a finalist as World Rugby’s International Player of the Year.
In 2012, at the age of 24, he was handed the captaincy of the Wallabies but during the next two years he suffered two disastrous and potentially career-ending injuries. First he was rubbed out with a knee reconstruction, then a year later in his third game back his anterior cruciate ligament was damaged. Another year on the sidelines beckoned, but the forward finally fought his way back and won a World Cup spot in Australia’s 31-man squad.
It is his work off the pitch, along with his special efforts on it, that make Pocock such an impressive character. The 27-year old co-founded a charity in rural Zimbabwe. He campaigns against homophobia and for marriage equality. In 2011 he spoke up about his battle to overcome an eating disorder he suffers. He also campaigns for action on climate change, and was arrested and charged last year after joining a coal mine protest.
Activist, social campaigner, world-class openside breakaway, there’s more to David Pocock than meets the eye. His passion for the environment and gay rights might surprise those who purely see the muscle-bound 184cm, 105kg physical specimen best known for pummeling opponents on the field. Nicknamed “Bamm Bamm”, because of his resemblance to the Flintstones character, Pocock is built like the proverbial brick shit-house. With guns The Rock would be proud of, tremendous core strength and tree-truck legs, the forward is renowned for his ability to steal the ball at breakdowns. A match-winning quality that can decide games at the highest level, it is this skill that could help propel the Wallabies into a third World Cup trophy.
FitzSimons describes Pocock both as a man of “great moral fortitude” and as a great player. “There are very few people who can have what was effectively two years out it and come back and be as good as he is,” he says. “Pocock can turn a match in the blink of an eye. He steals the ball, he turns them over, the backline looks up and there is David Pocock about to rip the ball off them. He makes the opposition doubt.”
Laurie Fisher coached against the flanker when he was with the Force and then saw him operate up close for two years as an assistant at the Brumbies. “David’s an amazingly disciplined athlete and person. He knows what he wants. His positivity is one of his keys, he’ll work through anything.”
Fisher likens him to former Wallaby skipper George Gregan. “David just leaves no stone unturned in his preparation,” he says. “Whether it’s looking after his own body, whether it’s tactically knowing what’s on and the opposition, whether it’s his own skill-set, he’s constantly working on making sure he’s doing everything possible he can.”
Pocock’s impact over the national team is not in dispute. In the past two years, as he has recovered on the sidelines, the Wallabies have churned through two coaches and lost the 2013 series with the British and Irish Lions on home soil. Last year they won just six of 14 Test matches and suffered well-documented culture problems that led to Ewen McKenzie’s demise.
Most memorably in 2011, then Wallaby coach Robbie Deans courted controversy by selecting Pocock as his only specialist number 7 with no back-up in his World Cup squad. When the flanker was injured for Australia’s pool match against Ireland, disaster struck. The Irish recorded a shock 15-6 win meaning a quarter-final meeting with South Africa, which was won almost single-handedly by the returning Gweru-born dynamo. Pocock made 26 tackles as an out-gunned Australia edged the Springboks in what is regarded as one of the all-time great World Cup performances. Deans called his forward’s display “immense” while the Sydney Morning Herald’s Greg Growden described him as the Wallabies’ “standout”.
It is those kind of individual performances that Australia desperately need in this tournament, which begins for the Wallabies against Fiji next week. Coach Michael Cheika is likely to select both Pocock and his rival for the number 7 jumper, Michael Hooper, in his starting team. With Pocock at the back of the scrum and the smaller, faster Hooper at openside, Cheika is hoping to dominate the breakdown, secure quality possession and frustrate the opposition. It’s a policy Eddie Jones used to great effect at the 2003 World Cup, when George Smith and Phil Waugh drove Australia all the way to the final.
If the Wallabies are to do the same this time round, and even go one better, Pocock will be key. He is a player respected as much for his skill and toughness as his for leadership. Israel Folau and Quade Cooper might grab the headlines and attention, but stopping Pocock is central to stopping the Wallabies.
“David’s got unbelievable respect from all the other nations and the only reason you can get that respect is if you’re the kind of player that he is,” Fisher says. “I think all sides are really, really wary of him, just his hardness over the ball, his combativeness. It’s the same with your Ritchie McCaws and Kieran Reads and people like that, if the opposition’s talking about you then you’re obviously a major concern to them. Nullifying Pocock would be a piece of any team’s pre-match discussions if you want to get any sort of tempo in your game.”
