579 days.
It's been a long time stints between pulling on the sky blue jersey for Michael Hooper. Despite this, his influence has been long felt around Daceyville as the Wallabies skipper makes his return from injury.
It was something the coaching staff noticed instantly, the John Eales Medalist mixing it with first-time pros and fringe players in the second squad, wanting to impress the Wallabies captain.
“I don’t know whether it was the Hooper effect but we actually trained the best we have in a long time,” head coach Darren Coleman said on the day he returned.
“He trained with the second team and they were sharp – I think a lot of them were a little starstruck and didn’t want to let the Wallabies captain down.
“So if we train that well when he’s here all the time, then we’ll be on a winner.
“One thing I’ve come to understand about Michael is he is very nurturing of the people around him. He’s been training with our second team whilst the main team has been trying to get to work, he has been so around those young guys," forwards coach Pauli Taumoepeau added.
“For some of those guys, they’ve been training with Jamie Roberts, who has now gone on to start, and now Michael Hooper. So they have been a professional for one minute and they train with a British Lion and the Wallabies captain. When we split for huddles, Michael doesn’t come over with the starting team, he sticks with them."
For Taumoepeau, the ability to come into the brand-new environment and observe how he operated was a 'privilege' and a perfect opportunity to learn for himself.
“He’s world-class. He came in for his first session and for whatever reason, I got emailed to go have a look to see if he was doing things right and I felt like I needed to take a notepad to learn off him," he explained.
“He’s just a world-class player. How he prepares, executes his skill is a genuine pleasure to watch. I stood there smiling, it’s easy to see why he is a top-class player. He has a standard that he lives by and he doesn’t drop, so everyone goes ‘we have to lift."
“You see 'Hoops' there leading the way, the young boys want to be right up next to him and not fall behind,” centre Lalakai Foketi believes.
“He’s just a leader by nature. Everyone’s on their toes on the field, you want to impress him and you want to do well.”
Hooper finds himself returning to a youthful back-row. When he departed for Toyota Verblitz, Charlie Gamble has yet to debut and Will Harris was only three games into his career
His presence is a natural lift for a forwards pack that has looked sharp to start the season, coming off a disappointing defeat to the Reds.
“He’s unbelievable,” Harris noted. “You want to train well when he’s around because he’s so professional."
“He has a big impact on the group just being here, it gives everyone a bit of extra confidence. I did a bit of training with him before he went off to Japan and he’s someone I like to ask questions and learn as much I can from him.
“He’s just very professional, I love watching the way he goes about his business. He’s a hard trainer, he’s a world-class player and athlete.
“I quiz him a lot about his actual game on the field at training and a bit about the breakdown. But also just how he preps for games when he was here last, how he gets ready week in, week out, to play.
“I think he’ll make a massive difference. Personally, when I’m lining up next to him, he gives me good confidence and also I just want to perform to the best I can.
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Friday's clash at CBUS Super Stadium will be a foreign experience of sorts for Hooper, wearing the double digits of a 'finisher' on his back instead of the usual number 7.
In his past 200 games for club and country, the 30-year-old has featured once off the bench - a 34-9 victory over Argentina in 2015, with David Pocock stepping back into his preferred position for the one-off game.
You could probably count the number of games he missed during that time on two hands with fingers to spare.
Despite the long layoff for his standards, expect nothing different from the World Rugby Player of the Year nominee.
“He’s been awesome and fantastic to watch from this side of the fence but I don’t think we’re going to see anything new or different from him on-field, he’s that guy who keeps swinging and goes," Taumoepeau added.
"I think we just come to expect that from the evidence he shows so I’m really excited to have him a part of the team and it’s a massive honour and privilege to be involved with him.”
