Michael Kent Hooper (born 29 October 1991) is an Australian former professional

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

player who is the former captain of the Australia national team, the Wallabies. 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 The New South Wales Waratahs ( or ;), often referred to as the Waratahs, are an Australian professional rugby union team based in Sydney that represents the majority of New South Wales in the Super Rugby Pacific competition. The Waratahs play t ...

Super Rugby Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...

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

Hooper was born on 29 October 1991 in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, and played his junior rugby at the Manly Roos like other former Wallabies such as George Smith. Hooper represented Australia under 20 at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship where he captained the side at times and was named International Player of the Tournament.

Professional career

Super Rugby

Hooper made his Brumbies debut in 2010, as stand-in for the injured George Smith. After a breakout season for the Brumbies in 2012, he was signed by the

for the 2013 season. 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 John Anthony Eales (born 27 June 1970) is an Australian former rugby union player and the most successful captain in the history of Australian rugby. In 1999, he became one of the first players to win multiple Rugby World Cups. Early life E ...

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. 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 The Western Force is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Perth, Western Australia, currently competing in Super Rugby, Super Rugby Pacific. They previously played in Super Rugby from 2006 until they were axed from the competitio ...

. 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 The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...

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

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, marking his first serious move to play domestic rugby outside the Super Rugby since starting his career with the Brumbies in 2010.

International

On 5 June 2012, Hooper made his international debut for

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

, coming off the bench (in the 65th minute) against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

in Newcastle. 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 Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

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. 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'. In 2014, Pocock suffered another season-ending knee injury and in

Ewen McKenzie Ewen James Andrew McKenzie (born 21 June 1965) is an Australian professional rugby union coach and a former international rugby player. He played for Australia national rugby union team, Australia's World Cup winning team in 1991 and earned 51 ...

'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 France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. 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 Brisbane Stadium (Lang Park), currently known as Suncorp Stadium for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose stadium in the suburb of Milton, Queensland, Milton, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Nicknamed The Cauldron, it is a three-tiered rect ...

. 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'. 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. 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. He also kept his starting position safe, forcing David Pocock into Number 8 after returning from injury. He was also selected in the 31-man

2015 Rugby World Cup The IRB 2015 Rugby World Cup was the eighth Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial rugby union world championship. The tournament was hosted by England from 18 September to 31 October. Of the 20 countries competing in the World Cup in 2011, there was ...

squad. In 2016, Hooper was again awarded the John Eales Medal, the 4th player to have won it a second time. 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. 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. 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 Dave Rennie (born 22 November 1963) is a New Zealand and Cook Islands professional rugby union coach and former player. He will take over the Kobe Steelers as head coach for the 2023–24 season. He previously was the head coach of the Austral ...

. In 2021, Hooper surpassed

George Gregan George Musarurwa Gregan AM (born 19 April 1973) is a former rugby union player who played as scrum-half. Born in Lusaka, Zambia, Gregan represented Australia at an international level, and is Australia's second most capped player. He played S ...

'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 The 2023 Rugby World Cup () was the tenth men's Rugby World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national rugby union teams. It took place in France from 8 September to 28 October 2023 in nine venues across the country. The opening game ...

. At that time, Hooper was the fastest player to 50 caps and longest serving Wallabies captain Wallabies coach Eddie Jones cited Hooper's calf injury as a reason for his omission. On the 30th of June 2024, Hooper announced his retirement from Australian rugby and his Olympic Rugby 7s bid.

Statistics

Honours

Waratahs *

Champions:

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

* Australian Conference Champions (3):

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Play-off Appearances (4):

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Australia

* Rugby Championship Champions:

Mandela Challenge Plate The Nelson Mandela Challenge Plate is a rugby union trophy contested between Australia and South Africa. It is named after South Africa's first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela. History Initially designed to be held every two yea ...

(6): 2012,2015–2018,2021 *

Rugby World Cup The Men's Rugby World Cup is a rugby union tournament contested every four years between the top international teams, the winners of which are recognised as the World championship, world champions of the sport. The tournament is administer ...

Runners Up:

Personal life

His father is from

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. Hooper grew up in

Collaroy Collaroy may refer to: *Collaroy Plateau Collaroy Plateau is a suburb of northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Collaroy Plateau is 22 kilometres north-east of the Sydney central business district, in the Local govern ...

on the

Northern Beaches The Northern Beaches is a region within Northern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia, near the Pacific coast. This area extends south to the entrance of Port Jackson (Sydney Harbour), west to Middle Harbour and north to the ...

and currently resides in Manly.

References

External links

*
Michael Hooper
at

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...

Wallabies profile

Waratahs profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hooper, Michael 1991 births Australia international rugby union players Rugby union players from Sydney Australia national rugby union team captains ACT Brumbies players New South Wales Waratahs players Rugby union flankers Living people Australian people of English descent People educated at St Pius X College, Sydney Sydney (NRC team) players Toyota Verblitz players 2015 Rugby World Cup players 2019 Rugby World Cup players Manly RUFC players Australian expatriate rugby union players in Japan Australian rugby union players 21st-century Australian sportsmen People from the Northern Beaches