Cooper tweets no appeal
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A tweet by Quade Cooper appears to have put an end to the Queensland’s thoughts of appealing the Reds playmaker’s ban ahead of Saturday night’s Super Rugby qualifying final against the Sharks in Brisbane.
The Reds had kept the Sharks sweating on Cooper’s availability after releasing a statement on Wednesday afternoon claiming they were still “seriously considering” lodging an appeal over Cooper’s one game suspension for a dangerous tackle.
Just hours later Cooper appeared to put the issue to bed.
“I won’t be appealing the 1 match suspension as I don’t want to be a distraction to the teams prep,” he tweeted on Wednesday night.
The Reds are yet to officially confirm Cooper’s claim.
But the tweet looks to have ended what could have been a disruptive appeal process for the Reds ahead of their sudden death showdown at Suncorp Stadium.
Queensland Rugby Union chairman Rod McCall had said earlier on Wednesday the QRU would speak with governing body SANZAR before making a decision on whether to appeal the ban for a high tackle on NSW Waratahs centre Berrick Barnes.
But time was not on their side – a team can only lodge an appeal up to 48 hours after receiving the written judgement.
The Reds received their documentation on Tuesday night.
“By not receiving the formal judgment until 8pm Tuesday, after the decision was handed down on Monday evening, time is getting away from us in what was already a short preparation,” McCall had said in the Reds statement on Wednesday.
“Under the current SANZAR protocols, if we were to launch an appeal, we would lose at least a further day of preparation with (Reds coach) Ewen (McKenzie) and Quade who would both be required to fly to Sydney for another hearing.
“However, we are cognisant of the need to support our player if we feel he has been treated harshly and, in our opinion, we still strongly believe the tackle did not warrant suspension.”
A gutted Cooper said on Monday night after a marathon judicial hearing that he was wary of appealing due to the risk of adding more weeks to his ban if unsuccessful.
If the Reds beat the Sharks, Cooper will be free to return for the semi-final against the Chiefs in Hamilton next week.
The Reds will name their side for the qualifying final on Friday but Ben Lucas is tipped to replace Cooper at five-eighth.
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The Crowd Says (15) | Page 1 of Comments
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- Quade Cooper, Reds, Rugby Union, Sharks, Super Rugby
July 19th 2012 @ 3:31am
post said | July 19th 2012 @ 3:31am | Report comment
Classy move and smart for Cooper to just accept the decision and not distract his team. I’m sure the haters will somehow turn this into him acting like a thug somehow.
July 19th 2012 @ 5:26am
Jerry said | July 19th 2012 @ 5:26am | Report comment
I don’t this makes him a thug, but I also don’t see it as particularly classy.
July 19th 2012 @ 7:06am
aussiekiwi said | July 19th 2012 @ 7:06am | Report comment
Would have thought it should be the club’s decision and cooper jumped the gun and gave sharks a headsup. they probably alredy knew – an appeal had little chance of success. definitely not classy.
July 19th 2012 @ 6:39am
chuck said | July 19th 2012 @ 6:39am | Report comment
Classy move knowing that you guilty reall class. !!!!yeahh right!!!
July 19th 2012 @ 8:45am
Gary Russell-Sharam said | July 19th 2012 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Storm in a teacup, there is nothing else to report so the media dwells on this. Lucas will do the job and the Reds will have nothing to complain about going into this match. If you do the crime you do the time. The tackle went wrong and it’s that simple.
July 19th 2012 @ 10:35am
Cattledog said | July 19th 2012 @ 10:35am | Report comment
Correct Gary…but wasn’t it great to at least see him man up and tackle
July 19th 2012 @ 11:14am
mania said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:14am | Report comment
yeah CD, what all the cooper haters (btw i’m not a copper fan) arent saying is coopers come back from injury a lot more physical than he usually is. he’s a bit random and careless but at least the desire to get physical is there.
all needs to do is learn some accuracy and control
July 19th 2012 @ 12:13pm
Damo said | July 19th 2012 @ 12:13pm | Report comment
Yes Gary and cattle dog. It is a shame that in a season where every second game sees a tackle like this (or worse) that sees no game punishment – a high profile player mistakenly injuring another leads to this.
But yes , under scrutiny, it seems to my eye, a dangerous play and worth looking at. And if the laws say its a week , then it’s a week.
So the reds should just concentrate on the shark hunt and let Quade have a rest.
And if they happen to fail then the wallabies will have an even longer prep and be super fresh for the Bledisloe.
In the long term though penalty consistency seems to be the elephant ion the room.
July 19th 2012 @ 12:11pm
PeterK said | July 19th 2012 @ 12:11pm | Report comment
No its more like if in the officials discretionary view you a) get caught doing the crime b) they decide to report the crime , then you do the time.
There have many many cases of illegal contact with the head with the minority penalised, fewer of those yellow carded and then out of all those only this one reported and hence suspended.
No complaints whatsoever if the citing commissioner went over all matches and cited all head highs, if they were as diligent with that as they were with spear tackles.
It is the selective sanctions that erk the most.
July 19th 2012 @ 12:45pm
redsnut said | July 19th 2012 @ 12:45pm | Report comment
“if the citing commissioner went over all matches and cited all head highs, if they were as diligent with that as they were with spear tackles.
It is the selective sanctions that erk the most.”
Agree with that PeterK, it’s the inconsistency of it all that gets right up the nose.
As to QC’s tackling, I noticed in the Highlanders game that he just stood up and held the player and the ball while his team-mates caught up with the play. A good move, I thought, and it has (from memory) often been the case for which he has been accused of not tackling.
That has made me look at his “non-tackling” label in a somewhat different light – it stops an off load and delays things just enough for help to arrive.
July 19th 2012 @ 7:07pm
Dave said | July 19th 2012 @ 7:07pm | Report comment
His punishment was served during the match when he was sent off for 10 minutes.
This is an absolute joke. What morons decide to rule the nations most exciting player out of a home final that 50,000 people bought tickets to expecting to see, not to mention people watching on TV.
Does anyone think that the NRL or AFL would do this to their codes for a similar incident? We just saw an article on the poor numbers for australian super rugby viewing this year. Not surprising after the debacle that was the world cup campaign, combined with Cooper being injured for most of the year. So this ruling hardly helps the game…
Besides, do the officials even watch the game? Barnes is the LAST player Cooper would be trying to injure. He is no doubt praying that Barnes will be outside him come the 4 nations. If he was going to target a player, of course who know who it would be be – Pat McCabe!
Think how much money and Cooper lost due to Barnes being out of the game last year. Instead he had to play with the VERY limited McCabe who offered him nothing all World Cup – but McCabe actually gets praised for doing nothing and Cooper is held up as a failure!
July 19th 2012 @ 11:11pm
David said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:11pm | Report comment
“What morons decide to rule the nations most exciting player out of a home final that 50,000 people bought tickets to expecting to see, not to mention people watching on TV.??”
What has that got to do with anything?
It makes no difference if it was Cooper or the Reds 7th reserve that was on the field for 2 minutes before commiting such a tackle.
The tackler and tackled party are irrelevant to the citing or the finding.
The game that is coming up is also irrelevant.
The only time it becomes relevant is when it comes to sentencing – if the offender has a good or bad track record thus adding mitigating or aggravating circumstances
If you are going to complain then focus on consistency. Was the finding harsh compared to other similar ones?
But its irrelevant who it is
Its irrelevant that it is a playoff that is being missed
It makes no difference if the game is watched by a 100 or a million.
July 20th 2012 @ 3:31pm
Dave said | July 20th 2012 @ 3:31pm | Report comment
‘What has that got to do with anything?’
Rugby is a business, not some public service department shielded from the real world. SANZAR only exists due to the sports ability to bring in revenue. This is very difficult in Australia due to the intense competition from other codes, and the general lack of media coverage.
So its entirely relevant. As I said, 50,000 people purchased tickets to a match, and many more will be watching on TV – fans and casual viewers alike. Rugby shoots itself in the foot when its most exciting player is ruled out based on a decision from an out of touch judiciary process.
As had been started many times, tackles such as the one Cooper was banned for happen every week without issue. So yes consistency is a problem, and we do our sport no favours by such decisions.
Lucas will try his best as will his team mates, but the fact of the matter is that it will be an uphill battle to win this match now. A loss with mean no chance of ticket sales for a suncorp final, and a huge drop in tv ratings from Australians.
So yes it does matter if its a playoff (SANZAR even factored this into their punishment), and if nobody is watching, SANZAR doesn’t exist.
July 19th 2012 @ 11:14pm
Royce Strauss said | July 19th 2012 @ 11:14pm | Report comment
Yes, McCabe is the only reason you failed at the world cup….
July 20th 2012 @ 3:39pm
Dave said | July 20th 2012 @ 3:39pm | Report comment
No I – like many of the roar posters – pointed out ad nauseum all the reasons the Wallabies campaign would fail before the cup began. We further pointing out the flaws during the tournament but our pleas fell on deaf ears. McCabe was just 1 glaring component of that.
Unfortunately we were proved correct.
Did that mean that Wallabies would have won otherwise? Of course not. We would have at least given it a shake however, which is all fans can ask of our team.
As it turned out, the entire WC was an embarrassment for Australia and set the sport back years with our negative play and tactics.