Wallabies captain to take Japan sabbatical

In an exclusive interview the Australian captain Michael Hooper explains his next move and why he chose Japan

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has announced he will miss most of the Super Rugby season in 2021 Picture: Britta Campion

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has taken up the option of a sabbatical with Japanese Top League team Toyota Verblitz.

Hooper told The Australian he will join the club in January next year and said the six-month stint in Japan suited his Wallabies commitments leading up to the 2023 World Cup.

“I won’t miss a Test match, but I know nothing is granted in this game, so I am fully aware of the decision I have made in regards to that,” Hooper said.

“Once the pay deal was done (last April), and this opportunity to take a sabbatical came up, from there I started exploring the opportunity.

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“Pretty much this is the best time for me in my contract period to do this, being the first year into a four-year World Cup cycle this works out the best in terms of my development and timing wise, into that next block of years of rugby.”

Hooper, 28, will miss the first three quarters of the Super Rugby season next year but is available for all the Wallabies’ Tests. He has had discussions with Wallabies coach Dave Rennie about the move to Top League.

The offer to play at Toyota Verblitz, whose director of rugby is former All Blacks coach Steve Hansen, came soon after the Rugby Union Players Association secured a “sabbatical option” in the pay negotiations, which saw players initially take a 60 per cent cut.

A handful of Rugby Australia’s top earners, those who had a loss of $200,000 in earnings or more – including Matt Toomua and Dane Haylett-Petty – have been given the sabbatical option.

After playing his entire career in Australia, the Wallabies captain said he was looking forward to being coached by Hansen as well as playing alongside All Black Kieran Read.

“It’s going to be a new exposure to a new rugby environment for me, I have been in some amazing Australian rugby environments, with the Brumbies and now Waratahs for a long time,” Hooper said.

“To have the exposure to a new environment that has a World Cup-winning coach in Steve Hansen and with Kieran Read as a fellow player, amongst some top players. That’s a really exciting opportunity for me, for my rugby world, which has been very Australian up to this point.”

Rugby Australia boss Rob Clarke said Hooper’s move was of “no surprise” and backed the timing of his Japan venture.

“Very clearly this is part of the agreement struck with RUPA and some players back in the year, this is not a surprise to us, we’ve been working with Hoops all the way through,” Clarke said.

“I think this is a good time for him to do it, as he made clear to us, when he was bouncing this concept around. He wants to be around leading up to the next World Cup, and that was a key priority, so 2021 became the obvious year to take this opportunity. He is very committed to the Wallabies, the Waratahs and the back-end of his contract. It was the obvious time to do it, in many respects from Rugby Australia’s point of view and NSW, going to Toyota under the stewardship of Steve Hansen and some of the other players they have, I think will be the opportunity for him and one that we support. I look forward to it being a success and welcoming him back.”

Hooper will lead the Waratahs out against Melbourne Rebels at Sydney’s Leichhardt Oval on Saturday, in a match that both teams need to win to keep their seasons alive.

The Waratahs are third on the Super Rugby AU table, six points adrift from the second-placed Reds, with the Brumbies on top.