Michael Hooper will become Australia's 82nd Test captain when the Wallabies face France in Melbourne this weekend.

Hooper will take over from Stephen Moore, who requires knee reconstruction after rupturing his anterior and medial cruciate ligaments in the Wallabies' 50-23 thumping of France on Saturday.

The Waratahs flanker led Australia for 75 minutes after Moore went down with just five minutes on the clock. He put in a typical all-action performance, scoring a try and featuring heavily in both defence and attack.

He'll become one of the youngest Wallabies captains at just 22-years old, but coach Ewen McKenzie is confident he's got the right man for the job.

'It's a massive honour to captain your country and I'm confident Michael has all the right leadership qualities to lead this team moving forward,' he said.

'He'll undoubtedly bring his own unique personality to the way things are done but we wouldn't have recognised him in a leadership capacity (as vice-captain) at the beginning of this series if we didn't think he had to the ability to step into this role.

'I couldn't have been more impressed with his performance on the weekend after Stephen went down, so we know the added responsibility won't impact the high-level of play we all expect from him each week.'

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