{"id":303597,"date":"2023-06-03T13:00:15","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=303597"},"modified":"2023-06-03T13:59:15","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T13:59:15","slug":"hooper-farewell-party-crashed-by-strugglers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=303597","title":{"rendered":"Hooper farewell party crashed by strugglers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Hooper's Sydney farewell party was crashed by Moana Pasifika as the NSW Waratahs slumped to an embarrassing 33-24 loss on Saturday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

Hooper, who captained the Waratahs in place of Jake Gordon, was playing his final home match for the club.<\/p>\n

The talismanic flanker maintained his usual high standards – and scored a late consolation try – but the team's performance was flat as Moana claimed their only win of the Super Rugby Pacific \ufeffseason.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific season on the home of rugby, Stan Sport.<\/strong><\/em> All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

The result didn't affect NSW's playoff plans, with the club locked into sixth place and a quarter-final date with the Blues in Auckland regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n

The Waratahs will start rank outsiders and coach Darren Coleman will also be sweating on the fitness of Wallabies Gordon, Harry Johnson-Holmes, Izaia Perese and Langi Gleeson who all picked up injuries at Allianz Stadium.<\/p>\n

Winger Timoci Tavatavanawai and flanker Miracle Fai'ilagi both scored doubles for Moana, while captain Christian Leali'ifano raced away for a memorable try.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djokovic blasts 'disrespectful' Roland-Garros fans\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie gun's amazing feat, champ's world record demolition\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Explosive Hawthorn twist 'cuts deep', says Lewis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1664956994741219330?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

"Congrats to Moana," the humble Hooper told Stan Sport's Drew Mitchell.<\/p>\n

"They shut us down really well, they put pressure on us from the get-go. For them to come out, in a tough season, to get the win, congrats to them. They played with a lot of heart.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, disappointing for us rolling into a quarter-final next week…<\/p>\n

"We weren't accurate, we missed a lot of areas in the game, but that's the way it goes."<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1664962664123228161?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

The Blues thumped the Waratahs 55-21 at Eden Park in the regular season and warmed up for the finals with a 16-9 win over the Highlanders on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Waratahs haven't beaten the Blues away since 2009 and will also \ufeffhave one less day to prepare for the daunting challenge.<\/p>\n

Blues coach Leon MacDonald is expecting star playmaker Beauden Barrett to play after missing two games with a nasty gash on his foot.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/StanSportRugby\/status\/1664957149661876225?s=20<\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeff"Tonight was far from our best," Hooper said.<\/p>\n

"We've had some good patches throughout the year, so we're going to need that going into finals time. There's a need to play your best footy there. We were off it tonight.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, it sucks. But you know, lots to play for next week. "<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Hooper's Sydney farewell party was crashed by Moana Pasifika as the NSW Waratahs slumped to an embarrassing 33-24 loss on Saturday night. Hooper, who […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303597"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=303597"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303600,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303597\/revisions\/303600"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/303599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}