Do we like them?

Do we like Michael Hooper?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A decent record and a public stand for marriage equality, held back by thin evidence of wider good work and one sour recent spray at a referee.

Michael Hooper was the Wallabies' go-to openside flanker for a decade. He debuted in 2012 aged 20, captained the Waratahs to the 2014 Super Rugby title, and first led Australia in 2014 aged 22. He ended up with 125 Tests, 69 of them as captain, more than anyone else in gold, and four John Eales Medals.

His career ended in 2024 in a way few saw coming. He moved to the Australian sevens side chasing an Olympic spot, missed selection for Paris, and retired from Australian rugby the same day, writing “What a ride!” in his farewell statement.

On the harm test, the record is clean. In 2017, as captain, he told The Canberra Times the team was “very supportive of the 'yes' campaign” for same-sex marriage, while teammate Israel Folau publicly came out against it. When the Folau row blew up in 2018, Hooper's line was that everyone is entitled to their beliefs and that they wouldn't divide the squad. Where you land on that depends on whether you read it as team diplomacy or a soft answer. Nothing turned up on climate, vaccines, women or race, and no troubling company.

The fresh bit is a stoush with the refs. After Australia's win in Perth, Hooper said on Stan Sport's Between Two Posts that he didn't think Piardi should referee Australia again, framing it as World Rugby looking after its referees. Planet Rugby called it a thinly veiled attack and read it as an implied bias accusation. Former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen defended him, saying Hooper wasn't having a crack at the ref but raising a welfare concern.

Honest gap: we found no court cases, no accusations against him and nothing on charity work of his own that we could confirm from the pages we read. The good stuff is mostly the playing record and a long stint as captain. That's a thin file on the nice side, so he's a solid pass rather than a saint.