James Horwill wants captaincy back but knows he must recapture best Wallabies form first Horwill knows he must first get back to his best before thinking about the captaincy. JAMES Horwill wants the Wallabies' captaincy back. But the imposing second-rower says he first wants to regain the form that made him an automatic selection in any Australian side. A fortnight after being dumped as skipper in favour of Ben Mowen by Wallabies coach Ewen McKenzie in England, Horwill has opened up on one of the lowest moments of his career and how he is striving to bounce back. "I'd love to captain my country again, it goes without saying," Horwill said. I take great pride, and I put a lot of effort into doing it. It's not something I take lightly, it's a huge responsibility and something that I did enjoy doing. But that's not the priority. The priority is to get my form back and win for the team. McKenzie had also planned to drop Horwill to the bench for the game against England, but a late injury to lock Rob Simmons allowed him to stay in the starting side. Horwill admits he was "unhappy" with his form leading into McKenzie's bombshell announcement, although he never saw it coming. "Probably not, I knew that my form was poor and if I didn't pick it up that was going to be an issue, so from that sense maybe, but not the captaincy thing," Horwill said. [The feeling] was pretty low, I've unfortunately had a lot of serious injuries in my career, you get to learn to deal with pretty ordinary moments pretty well once you've had three or so of those. I'm not going to hide the fact I was disappointed. I love what I do and I love captaining my country, but you've just got to put that to one side, we're in a performance industry. No one likes being dropped, it's just one of those things, every footballer in their career has been dropped at some point in time. It hasn't [happened to me], you've got to work out a way to respond instead of sitting around kicking cans. You make sure the way you hold yourself is always of the highest level, no matter what happens. I'm focused on responding the way I know I can, and responding the way Ewen is hoping for as a player. Horwill put himself on a media ban until he regained form, which he has done with strong performances against England and Italy. "I just wanted it to be more about me, and being selfish in the way I prepare," he said. I worried about my game and probably not the distractions of talking. It's not that I didn't want to talk, I wanted to get my backyard right before I could talk about it. McKenzie has stated that the Wallabies' captaincy remains a "week-to-week proposition" as he seeks consistent performance from all players, although he has not guaranteed Horwill the job if he regains his best form. Wallabies Coach Ewen McKenzie says flyhalf Quade Cooper is proving his worth at international level after an impressive display in the win over Italy. "He hasn't said that, he's said it's a week to week thing, performance is king at the moment," Horwill said. We need guys performing week in, week out. I'm probably my own harshest critic, I never think I've played an excellent game, even when you look back and think 'I went alright'. I still feel there's areas I can keep improving, that's the way I look at it, always. Horwill has endured a rough 2013, with Queensland Reds knocked out in the Super Rugby quarter-finals, Horwill skippering Australia to a 2-1 loss in the British and Irish Lions series, losing the Bledisloe Cup 3-0, and then losing the captaincy at the start of the spring tour. The year has been a bit up and down for me, but that's sport isn't it? Horwill said. There has been nobody in sport that has had a whole career go smooth sailing. That's the reality of it, you've just got to push through it. Losing the captaincy of the Wallabies: I was obviously very disappointed, from a personal note I put a lot of time and effort into that, and took a lot of pride in captaining my country. But you need to put that to the side and understand the priority is the team, and that's the way I've gone into every game. Whether me as the individual or me as the captain, it's always been about the team. It would be unnatural not to be disappointed, but you've got to get on with the job at hand and that's winning football games. On his poor form at the time: I was the first one to say my form wasn't where I wanted it to be, I'd spoken to coaches about various things throughout the year, I wasn't happy with the way I was playing. It's given me an opportunity to worry about myself more than I ordinarily might have. Being captained by Ben Mowen: He's good captain, an experienced captain, he's a guy who knows what he wants to get out of a team, and we've got to do everything we can to get the team to function. We had a good result on the weekend, now the big focus for us is to get back-to-back wins, which is something we've struggled to do over a number of years. His new role in the team: I still feel I need to lead around the group, that's the way I am. I wouldn't say it's a weight off my shoulders, there's obviously less you have to do, more so off the field than on it, not being captain. That's allowed me to be a bit more selfish in my preparation, and just worry about how I need to prepare physically and mentally.