{"id":559963,"date":"2026-03-23T23:45:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559963\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T23:45:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T23:45:10","slug":"hoopers-statement-on-injury-as-former-skipper-skelton-returns-from-two-month-layoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/559963\/","title":{"rendered":"Hooper&#8217;s statement on injury as former skipper Skelton returns from two-month layoff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-2425b0\">The return of the club competitions in Europe has paved the way for a host of Australians to make a statement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">There were a number of capped Wallabies back in action over the weekend, including a powerful statement from Tom Hooper.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.stan.com.au\/watch\/sport\/rugby\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"css-tm001h\">Watch every second of the 2026 Super Rugby Pacific season live and on demand via Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Aussies Abroad\u00a0breaks down the weekend that was.<\/p>\n<p>England<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Tom Hooper has delivered a player of the match performance as Exeter took down Sale 26-14 in the Premiership.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Hooper had two turnovers and two tackle busts in his first game back from an MCL injury since January 24.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;Great to be back, dropped a few kgs so a few of the boys thoughts I&#8217;d be dominated in the contact so hopefully I did my job today,&#8221; Hooper said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DWJ_PozlJGa\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" class=\"css-tm001h\">post-match.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">&#8220;In this Prem, anyone can beat anyone, so every dog has its day, and you have to be on your toes. I&#8217;m really happy how we started that first half to show a bit of grit there in the end which is nice.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">There was similar success for Izaia Perese for Leicester, crossing late in a 33-19 win over Bristol, with James O&#8217;Connor an unused sub.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Western Force recruit James Ramm continued his fine form, making three tackle busts and three offloads in a narrow 28-27 victory over Newcastle.<\/p>\n<p>France<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">It was another successful return story in France as Will Skelton made his first appearance since January for La Rochelle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Skelton was called into the action early for fellow Aussie Kane Douglas, putting together 52 minutes in a 20-6 win over Pau, who started Reece Hewat and Jack Maddocks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Taniela Tupou continues to fire for Racing 92 as an impact player, scoring again off the bench in a big 52-21 victory over Castres, his fifth try in six games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Tom Banks scored the winner for Montpellier in a dazzling performance against Clermont, also recording ten tackle busts as they were victorious 20-17.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Rob Leota and Adam Coleman both started for Bayonne and Bordeaux as they defeated Montauban and Toulouse, but Jordan Petaia couldn&#8217;t inspire victory for Perpignan against Lyon.<\/p>\n<p>URC<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Angus Bell was fit and firing for Ulster, one of their bests in a 26-19 loss to Connacht.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Bell had a monster 15 carries and scored late as the Irish side went down.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Former Waratahs Archer Holtz and Kane Douglas had more success for Scarlets, helping them to a 36-17 win over Zebre.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Ex-Red Ryan Smith started for Ospreys as they went down 31-19 to Benetton.<\/p>\n<p>Japan<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Samu Kerevi continues to pile on the tackle busts in defeat for Urayasu D-Rocks, recording nine and a try in a 59-35 defeat to Kubota Spears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Bernard Foley came off the bench for Kubota, nailing his two shots at goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">It was a similar story for Isaac Lucas, who had five tackle busts in a 31-7 loss for BlackRams Tokyo against Saitama Wild Knights.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-2425b0\">Sean McMahon crossed for Tokyo Sungoliath as they lost 35-32 to Mitsubishi Sagamihara Dynaboars<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The return of the club competitions in Europe has paved the way for a host of Australians to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":293838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,97542,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-559963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-aussies-abroad","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}