You’re out, no you’re not, Wales tell James Hook!
The most abrupt of u-turns gives their most versatile back a last-minute reprieve and one last shot at showing the Wales management why they would be wrong to throw him on the scrapheap.
Instead of announcing his international retirement during the course of a fraught week, Hook will report for Test duty ‘desperate and hungry to play for Wales,’ according to head coach Warren Gatland.
The day before the New Zealander announced a 35-man squad for the four-match home series starting against South Africa on November 9, Hook was advised by phone that he had not been picked.
Sources in France confirmed that Hook was still in the process of resigning himself to the prospect of being cast aside by the current Wales regime when he was told the following day that he had been picked after all.
One explanation could be that by then Wales had learnt that Alex Cuthbert’s ankle injury was worse than first thought and that they needed Hook’s versatility as cover for a number of positions behind the scrum, not least at full back.
Despite his impact in France since leaving the Ospreys for Perpignan, Hook has not started for Wales since the bronze medal World Cup decider against Australia in Auckland two years ago.
He sat on the bench throughout the Six Nations series last season when his total game time amounted to barely 20 minutes – seven against Ireland, none against France, 11 against Italy, none against Scotland and four against England.
Hook went to the last World Cup as the No. 1 full-back, displacing Lee Byrne for the two opening matches against South Africa and Samoa. He finished the tournament as the fly-half replacement for an injured Rhys Priestland in the semi-final against France by which time Leigh Halfpenny had begun his reign at full-back.
Gatland, who praised Hook’s performance for Perpignan at Gloucester earlier this month, claims that the player’s non-release for matches outside the IRB’s Test window ‘puts him at a disadvantage.’
Hook is not alone in that respect. His Perpignan team-mate, Luke Charteris, and the Bath prop Paul James are in the same boat in terms of being released for the three IRB-approved matches but not the fourth one which falls this year on November 30, against Australia.
Perpignan value Hook so highly that they extended his contract last month by four years until June 2017. In the two years since joining the club he has scored more than 600 points from 45 matches.
PETER JACKSON
