{"id":172645,"date":"2025-09-27T11:23:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/172645\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T11:23:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T11:23:07","slug":"quade-cooper-takes-public-dig-at-ex-wallaby-teammate-michael-hooper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/172645\/","title":{"rendered":"Quade Cooper takes public dig at ex-Wallaby teammate Michael Hooper"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Quade Cooper chimed in during the fallout from the Wallabies\u2019 33-24 loss to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> at Eden Park \u2013 but a flippant jab about former teammate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/michael-hooper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Michael Hooper<\/a> didn\u2019t land the way he probably expected.<\/p>\n<p>The contest in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/auckland\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Auckland<\/a> was a rollercoaster: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand<\/a> built a 20-3 lead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/australia\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Australia<\/a> fought back to 26-24 and looked dangerous late, but Cam Roigard\u2019s second try in the 75th minute sealed the result and kept the Bledisloe Cup in Kiwi hands.<\/p>\n<p>However, it was a former Wallaby teammate, Michael Hooper\u2019s commentary that caught Cooper\u2019s eye, or rather ear.<\/p>\n<p>Mid-game, Cooper took to X and wrote: \u201cLove him but.. Can someone please turn hoops [sic] mic off\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post was clearly meant as a cheeky dig at his former teammate\u2019s punditry on Stan Sport, but the reaction on X went in a slightly different direction.<\/p>\n<p>Fans were quick to defend Hooper and, perhaps more tellingly, to nominate Quade Cooper\u2019s good friend <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/sonny-bill-williams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sonny Bill Williams<\/a> as the bloke they\u2019d sooner mute.<\/p>\n<p>Replies ranged from \u201cI\u2019d rather listen to Hoops read the phone book than hear SBW say \u2018yeah the boys\u2019 one more time,\u201d to viewers confessing they mute the TV when Williams pipes up.<\/p>\n<p>Others suggested Cooper\u2019s trademark calm and \u201czen\u201d persona had slipped, with one remarking that Hooper was \u201ca proper Wallaby great and generally worth listening to.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBad blood with the former captain. Wouldn\u2019t be like you QC!\u201d quipped one account, while another wrote more blunty: \u201cTypical flog comment\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The overriding theme in the replies was that if any microphone needed muting, it was Sonny Bill Williams\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>Hooper, who retired from all rugby in 2024 after a flirtation with Sevens, has transitioned into punditry and has generally been widely praised for his insights during the broadcast.<\/p>\n<p>Williams, meanwhile, remains a polarising figure behind the microphone, his easy-going style appealing to some and infuriating others.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quade Cooper chimed in during the fallout from the Wallabies\u2019 33-24 loss to the All Blacks at Eden&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-172645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}