Peter Jackson: Shameful, this waste of Hook’s huge talent
His lowly profile during the autumn series strengthens the suspicion that the Welsh management have downgraded their double Grand Slam winner to a jack of all trades but master of none. For whatever reason, Hook appears to have been reclassified as a spare part in the Welsh plan.
The facts of the matter will hardly have sent him back to the day job in Perpignan feeling appreciated by the folks back home. Wales put him on the bench for the first match against Argentina and would have kept him there had one of Jamie Roberts’ more kamikaze tackles not cleared the way for his replacement’s unexpectedly early arrival.
Acting head coach Rob Howley thought so much of Hook’s efforts that he failed to find him a place among the substitutes against Samoa the following week. And when Wales did restore their most versatile back to the bench against the All Blacks, it was to give him an almost grudgingly short run in place of an out-of-sorts Rhys Priestland.
Hook’s autumn international duty, therefore, amounted to 56 minutes at inside centre and another 12 at fly-half. The fact that Wales lost all three and played some of their worst rugby for years will doubtless have left him to ponder whether he still has a long-term future and, if he does, where.
Remember this is a 67-Test player who ought to be in his prime at 27, a player who has served his country at full-back and in both centre positions as well as his specialist role at No.10. On the training field at The Vale, Wales put various half-back combinations through their paces, using Priestland and Dan Biggar but not Hook.
They will find it hard to believe in Perpignan where the Ospreys import has impressed the Catalans with his bombardment of penalties and professionalism. The fact that Hook is plying his trade across the Channel ought not to make a blind bit of difference because Wales are in no position to ignore anyone.
In their current predicament, any decision to weaken their prospects still further in an attempt to score a few political points is self-destructive. If Hook has less idea of where he stands now than he did a month ago, then the mixed messages from those who pick the team will not have helped.
They began by dropping another French émigré, Mike Phillips, to the bench because his employers, Bayonne, had not released him for the Polish refrigerator. Gethin Jenkins, another émigré, was picked at loosehead for the same match despite the fact that he, too, missed the Polish trip because Toulon required his services.
Since starting at No.10 in the third-place decider against Australia at the World Cup last year, Hook has been permitted surprisingly little game-time by Wales for a player of his calibre.
In the Six Nations last season, he played the second half against Ireland as a substitute and the second half against Scotland. Surplus to requirements against England, he managed the last four minutes against Italy at full-back instead of Leigh Halfpenny and then sat out the clincher against France.
For the three-Test series in Australia last summer, he spent all three with a No. 21 on his back, kicking his heels more than the ball. The one match he did start, against the Barbarians at the end of the domestic season, should never have been deemed worthy of Test status.
Perpignan were never going to let Hook stay for yesterday’s match against Australia, not when it clashed with the resumption of the Top 14 and its placing outside the IRB international window meant they were under no obligation to release a player with 53 goals from his first ten matches.
Besides, he had already sat out more than his share of internationals without having to sit out another one.
