Qantas Wallabies vice-captain Michael Hooper will act as the Macquarie Uni North Harbour Rays ambassador for the 2015 Buildcorp National Rugby Championship season.
Hooper, whose brother Richard has scored a spot in the Rays squad with a stellar Shute Shield season for the Manly Marlins, has been allocated to the northern Sydney franchise.
While there is little chance of Hooper pulling on a Rays jersey in 2015 with his Wallabies commitments he has helped the club in the past and when free will get down to Manly Oval and Pittwater Rugby Park to see them play.
Hooper was raised on the northern beaches and took his first steps on to a Rugby field with the Manly Roos, one of the Marlins’ village clubs.
Another Wallaby Scott Sio has also agreed to play for the Rays while Scott Fardy will, like Hooper, play an ambassadorial role when he’s not with the Wallabies.
Fardy got his start in the game with the Newport Dolphins and the Warringah Rats and has many fond memories of playing at Rat Park.
Players recognised as Wallabies for the 2015 NRC are those that were part of the 2014 Spring Tour plus Stephen Moore, Tatafu Polota-Nau and David Pocock. Each NRC team was asked to nominate to the ARU the Wallabies they were seeking for their allocation.
