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Michael Hooper (rugby union)

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Michael Hooper
Hooper representing Australia during the June Test Series, June 2017
Full nameMichael Kent Hooper
Date of birth (1991-10-29) 29 October 1991 (age 33)
Place of birthManly, New South Wales, Australia
Height182 cm (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Weight101 kg (223 lb; 15 st 13 lb)[2]
SchoolSt. Pius X College
UniversityMacquarie University
Rugby union career
Position(s) Flanker
Current team Waratahs
Amateur team(s)
Years Team Apps (Points)
2013 Manly 1 (20)
Correct as of 16 July 2016
Senior career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2010–2012 Brumbies 31 (25)
2013–2023 Waratahs 138 (130)
2021 Toyota Verblitz 10 (10)
Correct as of 10 May 2023
International career
Years Team Apps (Points)
2011 Australia U20 4 (10)
2012–2023 Australia 125 (110)
Correct as of 7 April 2024
National sevens team
Years Team Comps
2024 Australia 2

Michael Kent Hooper (born 29 October 1991) is an Australian former professional rugby union player who is the former captain of the Australia national team, the Wallabies.[3] His primary position is openside flanker.

Hooper is one of Australia's most-capped players of all time and played for the New South Wales Waratahs in Super Rugby from 2013-2023. He played for the Australian national rugby sevens team in 2024. Hooper has previously represented the Brumbies and Toyota Verblitz in his professional career.

Early life

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Hooper was born on 29 October 1991 in Sydney, and played his junior rugby at the Manly Roos like other former Wallabies such as George Smith.[4] Hooper represented Australia under 20 at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship[5] where he captained the side at times and was named International Player of the Tournament.

Professional career

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Super Rugby

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Hooper with the Waratahs, 2017.

Hooper made his Brumbies debut in 2010, as stand-in for the injured George Smith.[3]

After a breakout season for the Brumbies in 2012, he was signed by the New South Wales Waratahs for the 2013 season.[6] 2012 had been a standout year for Hooper who won numerous accolades including Best Forward (for the Brumbies), the ARU's Rookie of Year and placing third for the John Eales Medal after playing less than half of the polling games.

In 2013, Hooper played every Waratahs Super Rugby game of the season and he won the Australian Super 15 Player of the Year award, as well as the Waratahs' Player of the Year award.[7][8]

on the 1st of March 2014, Hooper was named captain for the Waratahs' clash with the Queensland Reds after team regular Dave Dennis was ruled out due to injury received in the Waratahs' first game of 2014 against the Western Force. Hooper led the Waratahs to a 32–5 win over the Reds at ANZ Stadium and went on to play all the remaining games of the 2014 season including the Grand Final against the Crusaders in which he captained the side to a 33–32 win at ANZ Stadium. It was the franchise's maiden Super Rugby title.

Top League

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In August 2020 it was announced that Hooper had signed to play for the Japanese Top League club Toyota Verblitz for the 2020–21 season,[9] marking his first serious move to play domestic rugby outside the Super Rugby since starting his career with the Brumbies in 2010.

International

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Hooper passing the ball against Scotland.

On 5 June 2012, Hooper made his international debut for Australia, coming off the bench (in the 65th minute) against Scotland in Newcastle.[10] Following a knee injury to regular flanker and captain David Pocock, Hooper started in every Test game until the final Spring-Tour game (and Nathan Sharpe's final Wallabies game) against Wales in Cardiff, where he started from the bench to make-way for David Pocock. Hooper won Wallabies 'Rookie of the year' award at the annual John Eales Medal awards evening event.[11]

In 2013, when David Pocock suffered a season-ending knee injury; Hooper played in all of the Wallabies Test matches and had an outstanding year, winning the John Eales Medal as 'Wallabies player of the year'.[11]

In 2014, Pocock suffered another season-ending knee injury and in Ewen McKenzie's second year as Wallabies coach, McKenzie named Hooper as vice-captain with his Waratahs team-mate Adam Ashley-Cooper and his former Brumbies team-mate Stephen Moore was named as Australia captain for the 2014 three-test June series against France.[12] However, when captain Stephen Moore left the field with a knee injury in the 5th minute, Hooper took over the captaincy for the rest of the game. During the game, he scored a try in the first half and he had a strong performance against France in the Wallabies' 50–23 win at Suncorp Stadium.[13] Hooper was rated was one of the best players on the field during the game by Iain Payten of foxsports.com.au and was also labelled 'the Energizer Bunny of world rugby'.[14]

Following the season-ending injury to Stephen Moore during the first test of 2014 against France in Brisbane, Hooper was named as Wallabies captain for the rest of the 2014 Test-season, meaning that he was the Wallabies 82nd Test captain and the youngest player (age 23, 233 days) to captain the side since Ken Catchpole (age 21, 354 days) in 1961.[15][16][17][18]

Following another strong 2015 Super Rugby season, Hooper was awarded the Peoples Choice – Wallaby of the Year at the John Eales Medal awards night for the second year in a row.[19] He also kept his starting position safe, forcing David Pocock into Number 8 after returning from injury.[20] He was also selected in the 31-man 2015 Rugby World Cup squad.[21]

In 2016, Hooper was again awarded the John Eales Medal, the 4th player to have won it a second time.[22]

Hooper became the full-time Wallabies captain for the 2017 Rugby Championship, following Stephen Moore announcing that the 2017 season would be his final year of test rugby.

His very rough playing style has led Hooper to collect nine yellow cards in his international career, matched in this unenviable record only by the Georgian Viktor Kolelishvili.[23]

In 2020, Hooper played his 100th test for Australia, becoming the fastest Wallaby to reach 100 tests. He also became the youngest-ever player to reach 100 tests for his country, although his record was later broken by Wales' centre, George North.[citation needed] Hooper's 100th test was a 16–16 draw with New Zealand, at the Wellington Regional Stadium. He went on to play all 6 of Australia's tests in 2020, under the new Head Coach, Dave Rennie.

In 2021, Hooper surpassed George Gregan's record for the most caps as Wallabies captain, 60.

In August 2023, Hooper was omitted from the Australian squad for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. At that time, Hooper was the fastest player to 50 caps and longest serving Wallabies captain[24] Wallabies coach Eddie Jones cited Hooper's calf injury as a reason for his omission.[25]

On the 30th of June 2024, Hooper announced his retirement from Australian rugby and his Olympic Rugby 7s bid.

Statistics

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Test Record Overall[26]
Opposition Played Won Drawn Loss Winning% Tries
Argentina 18 15 2 1 93.75 5
B&I Lions 3 1 0 2 33.33 0
England 12 2 0 10 18.18 3
Fiji 3 3 0 0 100.0 1
France 8 5 0 3 62.50 4
Ireland 6 2 0 4 33.33 2
Italy 4 4 0 0 100.0 0
Japan 2 2 0 0 100.0 0
New Zealand 29 4 3 22 18.96 2
Scotland 7 3 0 4 42.85 1
South Africa 16 7 2 7 43.75 2
Uruguay 1 1 0 0 100.0 0
Wales 9 7 0 2 77.77 2
Total 118 55 7 53 46.61 22

Honours

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Waratahs

Australia

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Personal life

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His father is from Kent, England.[27] Hooper grew up in Collaroy on the Northern Beaches of Sydney and currently resides in Manly.

References

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  1. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 April 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2019.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "| Rugby Union | Player | RUGBY.com.au". www.rugby.com.au.
  3. ^ a b "Wallabies Player Profile". Australian Rugby Union. Archived from the original on 23 August 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  4. ^ "Super Hooper is his Masters Shadow".
  5. ^ "Australian Under 20s Named for JWC". Australian Rugby Union. 10 May 2011. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 1 June 2012.
  6. ^ Dutton, Chris (18 April 2012). "Brumbies respect Hooper's defection". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  7. ^ "Michael Hooper, Israel Folau, Jake White win Super Rugby player, rookie and coach of year awards". Australia: ABC News. Australian Associated Press (AAP). 8 August 2013. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  8. ^ Warren, Adrian (29 August 2013). "Michael Hooper beats out Israel Folau for Matthew Burke Cup as NSW Waratahs Players' Player". The Daily Telegraph. Sydney. Australian Associated Press. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  9. ^ Robinson, Georgina (26 August 2020). "'Great opportunity': Hooper heading to Japan in 2021". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 December 2020.
  10. ^ Growden, Greg (29 August 2013). "Solid Scottish mudpack leaves Wallabies bearing". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  11. ^ a b Robinson, Georgina (25 October 2013). "Wallabies flanker Michael Hooper wins 2013 John Eales Medal". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  12. ^ "Moore to Captain Qantas Wallabies, Hooper and Ashley-Cooper named as Vice-Captains". Australian Rugby Union. 2 June 2012. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  13. ^ Tucker, Jim (8 June 2014). "Wallabies score seven tries to thump France 50–23 in first Test at Suncorp Stadium". Fox Sports. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  14. ^ Payten, Iain (8 June 2014). "Who starred and who stank from the Wallabies massive win over France". Fox Sports. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  15. ^ Robinson, Georgina (9 June 2014). "Michael Hooper appointed Wallabies captain". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  16. ^ Tucker, Jim (9 June 2014). "Michael Hooper confirmed as Wallabies skipper following Stephen Moore's season-ending injury". Fox Sports. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  17. ^ "Qantas Wallabies Flanker Michael Hooper to Captain Australia" (Press release). Australian Rugby Union. 9 June 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  18. ^ Conroy, Jamie (10 June 2014). "Super Hooper becomes youngest Aussie skipper in 50 years". New South Wales Waratahs. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
  19. ^ "Israel Folau becomes first player to win consecutive John Eales Medals". rugby.com.au. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  20. ^ "GAGR Exclusive: Prepare for the POOPER". Green and Gold Rugby. 5 August 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  21. ^ "Cheika names 31-man Wallabies Squad for Rugby World Cup". rugby.com.au. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
  22. ^ "Wallabies vice-captain Michael Hooper scores second prestigious John Eales medal". Sydney, Australia: ABC News. Australian Associated Press (AAP). 27 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  23. ^ "The five most yellow-carded players in rugby test". thesouthafrican.com. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 5 April 2021.
  24. ^ Fontaine, Angus (20 August 2023). "Michael Hooper's Wallabies career appears over. It will hurt to farewell him". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2024.
  25. ^ Decent, Tom and Payten, Iain (10 August 2023). "'Terrible phone calls': Cooper, Hooper and Ikitau out of Wallabies World Cup squad". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 March 2024.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  26. ^ "Rugby Union – ESPN Scrum – Statsguru – Player analysis – Michael Hooper – Test matches". ESPN scrum. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
  27. ^ Robinson, Georgina (9 March 2013). "Dad's the word". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 19 September 2015.
[edit]
Preceded by Australian national rugby union captain
2014; 2015–present 		Succeeded by
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