{"id":9733,"date":"2020-12-15T01:00:48","date_gmt":"2020-12-15T02:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=9733"},"modified":"2020-12-15T02:23:36","modified_gmt":"2020-12-15T02:23:36","slug":"wallabies-skipper-wins-rugbys-top-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=9733","title":{"rendered":"Wallabies skipper wins rugby's top award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper<\/a> has won his third John Eales Medal, joining Israel Folau as the only players to win the prestigious award three times.<\/p>\n

Hooper polled 91 points in the player-led vote, finishing just three points ahead of last year's winner Marika Koroibete, while James Slipper was third with 79 points.<\/p>\n

Nic White (61 points) and Reece Hodge (56) rounded out the top five.<\/p>\n

In a pandemic-reduced season, the Wallabies played six Tests<\/a>, winning one, drawing three and losing two.<\/p>\n

"On behalf of the Australian Rugby community, I would like to congratulate all of our winners throughout the Rugby Australia Awards series," Rugby Australia interim boss Rob Clarke said.<\/p>\n

\"Captain<\/p>\n

"I'd especially like to congratulate our Wallabies captain, Michael Hooper, on winning the John Eales Medal for a third time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Michael is an incredible rugby player, an outstanding captain and an excellent leader on-and-off the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"The way he conducts himself is a credit to him and the values he lives his life by, and we congratulate him on his achievement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"All our winners thoroughly deserve the accolades in what has been a challenging 2020."<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old, who played his 100th Test during the season, first captained the Wallabies in 2014, becoming the youngest man to lead Australia in 50 years.<\/p>\n

\"Michael<\/p>\n

Hooper's third medal, in addition to his 2013 and 2016 awards, means he joins Folau (2014, 2015 and 2017) with a hat-trick of medals.<\/p>\n

Nathan Sharpe, George Smith and David Pocock have all won the medal twice.<\/p>\n

List of John Eales Medal winners<\/strong><\/p>\n

2002: George Smith<\/p>\n

2003: Phil Waugh<\/p>\n

2004: David Lyons<\/p>\n

2005: Jeremy Paul<\/p>\n

2006: Chris Latham<\/p>\n

2007: Nathan Sharpe<\/p>\n

2008: George Smith<\/p>\n

2009: Matt Giteau<\/p>\n

2010: David Pocock<\/p>\n

2011: Kurtley Beale<\/p>\n

2012: Nathan Sharpe<\/p>\n

2013: Michael Hooper<\/p>\n

2014: Israel Folau<\/p>\n

2015: Israel Folau<\/p>\n

2016: Michael Hooper<\/p>\n

2017: Israel Folau<\/p>\n

2018: David Pocock<\/p>\n

2019: Marika Koroibete<\/p>\n

2020: Michael Hooper<\/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 clicking<\/em><\/strong> here<\/em><\/strong><\/a>!<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallabies captain Michael Hooper has won his third John Eales Medal, joining Israel Folau as the only players to win the prestigious award three times. […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"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\/9733"}],"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=9733"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9735,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9733\/revisions\/9735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}