{"id":910959,"date":"2026-09-30T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910959\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T11:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:50:09","slug":"michael-hooper-hides-referee-bias-accusation-behind-call-for-world-rugby-to-protect-andrea-piardi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/910959\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Hooper hides referee bias accusation behind call for World Rugby to protect Andrea Piardi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies legend Michael Hooper has effectively called on World Rugby to ban Andrea Piardi from officiating matches involving Australia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former captain issued a protection plea to the game\u2019s governing body for the Italian official when he appeared on the latest episode of Stan Sports\u2019 Between Two Posts.<\/p>\n

This comes after Piardi issued four yellow cards to Wallabies players during Les Kiss\u2019 side\u2019s 42-38 victory over the Springboks<\/a> in Perth last weekend.<\/p>\n

Harry Wilson and Hunter Paisami were sanctioned for high tackles whilst Ryan Lonergan was sin-binned after a penalty try was awarded to South Africa following a dominant scrum. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii was also sent for a 10-minute spell in the naughty chair after he was deemed to have been offside in defence, erroneously so, with assistant referee Ben O\u2019Keeffe identifying the wrong player.<\/p>\n

Despite the Wallabies<\/a>\u2018 ill-discipline, they managed to eke out the victory, their first in a match that Piardi has overseen with Australia losing each of the three prior games. They were beaten 22-19 by Ireland in November 2024 with the Italian on the whistle, 29-26 by the British and Irish Lions less than a year later and lost 33-24 against New Zealand during the Rugby Championship last year.<\/p>\n

Michael Hooper\u2019s \u2018plea\u2019 to World Rugby<\/p>\n

After the victory, Hooper still wasn\u2019t pleased with the Italian\u2019s performance, despite the official\u2019s job being made all the more difficult by the breakdown of communications with his TMO and the Wallabies\u2019 inability to play the game within the laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only comment I want to make, and this might be a bit out of school, and I don\u2019t want it to sound like a bit of a sooky note [a whinge], but I don\u2019t think Andrea Piardi should be allowed to referee Australia again,\u201d the former Wallabies captain said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an outrageous take from the ex-flanker, who quickly attempted to disguise his accusations that Piardi is biased against Australia by claiming that it would be in the best interest of the referee\u2019s mental health and would prevent social media abuse which has plagued international referees in recent years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I say that is not because of what I think about his reffing or him as a referee because I haven\u2019t watched enough of his games as referee in my time, but it should be a World Rugby<\/a> thing to look after their referees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWorld Rugby needs to think, \u2018Well, there\u2019s been some history now with this referee and this nation\u2019. So last year in the Lions, some other Test matches in the lead-up, including the All Blacks.<\/p>\n

Stan Sports commentator and the show\u2019s host Sean Maloney chipped in, adding, \u201cIreland in Dublin, the missed knock-on.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then this one last night,\u201d Hooper continued<\/a>. \u201cAnd unfortunately you do carry scars from previous games and previous fixtures as players going into next match-ups, and I think the referees probably do too. They\u2019re human, and it becomes hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I think in a duty of care sense he shouldn\u2019t be put in a Wallabies game, again not because of what I think about his refereeing, just because there\u2019s plenty of great referees out in the world and Piardi is certainly a referee that can do it at the top level, but it shouldn\u2019t be with Australia, and I think that should be a World Rugby directive.<\/p>\n

Rugby greats believe \u2018ridiculous\u2019 and \u2018stupid\u2019 things in Wallabies\u2019 win over Springboks \u2018are turning off our fans\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat may be with other nations and other referees as well. So, I think that they should consider that. It doesn\u2019t mean that every nation should come out and say, \u2018Oh, we don\u2019t want this referee\u2019 because maybe they\u2019ve had a bad track record. I would like to see them think about that a little bit.<\/p>\n

Maloney ended the discussion somberly, stating: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of scar tissue there. I\u2019m sure our listeners and viewers can feel the scar tissue, too. Yuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Never write them off\u2019 \u2013 Martin Johnson issues stark Australia warning ahead of 2027 Rugby World Cup<\/a><\/p>\n

Yuck indeed<\/p>\n

Yuck indeed. Hooper\u2019s comments stink of an accusation that Piardi is biased against the Wallabies, with the whily former captain hiding his dismay behind a plea to serve the best interests of the referee.<\/p>\n

Prior to making his thinly veiled attack on Piardi, Hooper dissected the yellow cards, having received more than his fair share during his illustrious career, and argued that those issued to Australian players were mostly right. He took issue with the Suaalii sin-binning but pinned that decision on assistant referee O\u2019Keeffe. However, he believed that the other yellow cards were the correct calls, remembering the circumstances that Piardi was officiating under.<\/p>\n

Hooper begins his bashing by stating that it might be \u2018out of school\u2019 and a bit of a \u2018sooky note\u2019 and he is right. It was.<\/p>\n

Like players, referees are far from perfect and will make mistakes, but in each of those matches that Piardi has officiated, the Wallabies were their worst enemy at times. There is no better example of that than what transpired in Perth. Sure, the one yellow card was issued to the incorrect player, but the other three were as clear-cut as they get, and Lonergan was lucky that his sanction came after the second time that South Africa opted for a scrum from a penalty, as he was yellow-carded for precisely the same action.<\/p>\n

In recent seasons, ill-discpline has been the Wallabies\u2019 undoing and have paid the price for some more lenient officiating in Super Rugby Pacific. Hooper shouldn\u2019t be calling for referees to be banned from officiating the Wallabies but instead should be focusing on the coaches and players getting onside with the refs.<\/p>\n

Wallabies squad: Taniela Tupou and Tom Hooper released for All Blacks Tests as Les Kiss recalls snubbed forward<\/a><\/p>\n

The Nic Berry bashing<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget that Nic Berry has not officiated a match involving South Africa since Rassie Erasmus\u2019 video during the 2021 British and Irish Lions series.<\/p>\n

The Australian official detailed the backlash he faced following the Springboks boss\u2019 criticism of his performance as South Africa lost the opening game of the Test series and said that Erasmus \u2018engaged in a character assassination of me on social media\u2019.<\/p>\n

Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a> for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n

Erasmus would also criticise Wayne Barnes in 2022 via his social media accounts but has learnt his lesson and has repeatedly refused to comment on the performances of officials since. Hooper\u2019s comments are far less direct and abusive than what the Bok coach utilised in his video, but they do follow a similar line of character assassination. He has tried to disguise it by claiming it would be best for Piardi, but it\u2019s rather transparent.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Nic Berry slams Rassie Erasmus\u2019 \u2018character assassination\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies legend Michael Hooper has effectively called on World Rugby to ban Andrea Piardi from officiating matches involving…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":910960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[24096,64,63,1379,818,1182,316588,44,760,1183,85,12907],"class_list":["post-910959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-andrea-piardi","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-features","tag-home-page","tag-internationals","tag-michael-hooper","tag-news","tag-rugby","tag-south-africa","tag-sports","tag-world-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910959","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=910959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/910959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/910960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=910959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=910959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=910959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}