Coaches and players may not like the 'invasion of privacy' but half-time footage of what's going on in the dressing rooms remains the best entertainment in town - particularly when the Waratahs are playing.

The theatrics of their coach, Michael Cheika, are always compelling viewing. He could be brandishing a golf club. He could be waving his arms around like a demented conductor. He could be physically threatening anyone within his vicinity. It is raw. It is often brutal. It has meaning.

This time around in Canberra, with the Waratahs down by three points at the break against their most mistrusted rivals - the Brumbies - Cheika was at his animated best. He started doing the venomous two-finger point at his own eyes, as if to indicate to his players: "Are you blind… or are you just dumb?" His face was going a different colour. He was emphasising the point with frenzied gesticulations of his hands.

No wonder the Waratahs say Cheika is the match-day master - having that ability of being 'standoffish' during the week and then in the hours leading up to the game getting the players into a frame of mind where they want to do anything for him. A mixture of inspiration and intimidation can have that 'walking over hot coals' effect.

As interesting during these half-time glimpses is observing what Michael Hooper is doing. He wasn't in the camera sight in Canberra, but most other times he will be right there in the background, pacing up and down like a frustrated, infuriated caged panther. While the other players are taking drinks, slumped on chairs, getting strapping attended to, Hooper appears to be in his own little world: hands on hips, head down, continually moving, back and forward, back and forward, across the dressing room. Remaining in the zone.

Michael Hooper was outstanding for the Waratahs against the Brumbies in Canberra © Getty Images

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There was this time a glimpse of Hooper's intensity at the end of the match. The Brumbies took the courageous approach. They could easily have opted to draw the game with a penalty shot in the final minute, but they went instead for the big prize and decided to have one last shot at breaking through the Waratahs defence. And good on them.

With numerous forward surges, they got closer and closer as the game went into its 82nd minute - until finally they messed up at the breakdown and conceded a penalty for not releasing the ball. As referee Glen Jackson whistled full time, the pent-up feeling, anger, and all that is involved with the bitterness of a long-running Brumbies-Waratahs feud, was released.

Hooper raised his arms in triumph, and with chest out immediately strode towards his opposition wanting to show who was the victor - who was the actual No.1 Australian Super Rugby side. It was a real 'up yours' moment. He was defiantly getting close to several of the dejected before his five-eighth, Bernard Foley, who wanted a hug, stopped him.

Hooper's reactions reinforced the importance of this victory: the Waratahs are the reigning titleholders but they haven't played like that too often this season; there have been occasional glimpses, such as against the Hurricanes in Wellington, but they have regularly lost their structure and rhythm. They were again a bit off in Canberra, with their handling a serious problem, but the drive and purpose was there - and an excellent defensive structure saved them.

Hooper's pose would have also had something to do with the pre-match banter asking if this game would determine whether Hooper or David Pocock was the premier openside flanker in Australia. The storyline dominated the headlines, putting enormous pressure on both to perform; and they did. Who won that battle? I made it a split decision, to coin the boxing vernacular of the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight of the Century weekend, with each using the game to show off their best attributes; they were each team's best player.

Pocock was outstanding at the breakdown, so powerful and so defiant - two attributes that will be crucial during the Rugby World Cup in the Northern Hemisphere later this year; Hooper was excellent at the tackle area and outstanding in open play, with his speed and willingness to take a chance making him also a vital Wallabies asset. They really have to be the first two picked for the World Cup squad. Whether they play as a tag team or together side by side is Cheika's big dilemma; and that's why he is on the big money.

As Hooper headed back towards his team-mates, there was the rare sight of emotion from the usually tranquil Stephen Larkham. The cameras swung to the Brumbies coaches box in time to see Larkham angrily fling his earpiece to the floor. He was another to show that these games mean so much, and that the line between triumph and despair is so fine.

That's why local derbies are the best Super Rugby fixtures. And that's why the tournament organisers will blunder if they keep pushing for expansion at the expense of such encounters.

The victory meant plenty to the Waratahs players © Getty Images

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