Michael Hooper (rugby union)

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Michael Hooper
File:Michael Hooper 2012 (cropped).jpg
Michael Hooper in October 2012
Full name Michael Hooper
Date of birth (1991-10-29) 29 October 1991 (age 33)
Place of birth Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Height 178 cm (5 ft 10 in)[1]
Weight 101 kg (15 st 13 lb)[1]
School St Pius X College
Chatswood, New South Wales[citation needed]
University Macquarie University
Rugby union career
Playing career
Position Openside Flanker
Amateur clubs
Years Club / team
2012– Manly Marlins
Professional / senior clubs
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2014- North Harbour Rays 0 (0)
Super Rugby
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2010–12
2013–		 Brumbies
Waratahs		 31
50		 (25)
(35)
correct as of 28 June 2015.
National team(s)
Years Club / team Caps (points)
2012– Australia 51 (45)
correct as of 31 October 2015.

Michael Hooper (born 29 October 1991 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian rugby union player who plays for the Waratahs in Super Rugby, the North Harbour Rays in the National Rugby Championship and is current vice captain of the national rugby side the Wallabies.[2] His playing position is openside flanker. He made his Super Rugby debut during the 2010 Super 14 season against the Chiefs in Canberra.

Junior career

Hooper played his junior rugby at the Manly Roos alongside other Wallabies such as George Smith.[3] Hooper represented Australia under 20 at the 2011 IRB Junior World Championship.[4] Where he captained the side at times and was named International Player of the Tournament.

Super rugby career

When Michael Hooper made his Brumbies debut in 2010, as stand-in for the injured George Smith, it was Smith's first missed Super Rugby game after 60 appearances, and only the second time that Smith had not fronted across 126 games for the Brumbies since his own debut in 2000.[2]

After a breakout season for the Brumbies in 2012, he was signed by the New South Wales Waratahs where he will begin the 2013 season.[5] 2012 was a standout year for Hooper who won many accolades including Brumbies best forward, Australian Rugby Union Rookie of year and was placed third for the John Eales medal after playing less than half of the polling games.

In 2013, Hooper played every Waratahs Super Rugby game in the season and he won the Australian Super 15 player of the year award, as well as the Waratahs player of the year award.[6][7]

On 1 March 2014, Hooper was named captain for the Waratahs' clash with the Queensland Reds after team regular Dave Dennis' was ruled out of the game due to injury following the Waratahs' first game of the 2014 season against the Western Force. He led the Waratahs to their 32-5 win over the Reds at ANZ Stadium. He went on to play all of the games remaining in the Waratahs' 2014 season, displaying great and strong performances every game including the Grand Final against the Crusaders which he captained the boys and lead them to a great 33-32 win over the Kiwi-team (and the seven-time Super Rugby champions)at ANZ Stadium.[8][citation needed]

International career

File:Michael Hooper (8140158997).jpg
Hooper in 2012

On 5 June 2012, Hooper made his international debut for the Wallabies, coming off the bench (in the 65th minute) against Scotland in Newcastle.[9] 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.

In 2013, when David Pocock suffered a season-ending knee injury; Hooper played in all of the Wallabies Test-games and had an outstanding year, winning the John Eales Medal as 'Wallabies player of the year'.[10]

In 2014, Pocock suffered another season-ending knee injury and in Ewen McKenzie's second year in charge as Wallabies coach, McKenzie named Hooper as Wallabies vice-captain with Waratahs team-mate Adam Ashley-Cooper and his former Brumbies team-mate Stephen Moore was named as Wallabies captain for the 2014 three-test June series against France.[11] 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.[12] 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'.[13]

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 will become the Wallabies 82nd Test captain and the youngest player (age 22, 223 days) to captain the side since Ken Catchpole (age 21, 354 days) in 1961.[14][15][16][17]

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.[18] He also kept his starting position safe, forcing David Pocock into Number 8 after returning from injury.[19] After Stephen Moore came back from injury, Hooper still held a leadership role as vice-captain. He was also selected in the 31-man 2015 Rugby World Cup squad.[20]

Personal life

His father is from Kent, England.[21]

References

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External links

Preceded by Australian national rugby union captain
2014		 Succeeded by
Stephen Moore
  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  3. ↑ http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/super-hooper-is-his-masters-shadow/story-e6frey4i-1225845487252
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