Cooper’s Wallabies future on the line

 

By , 28 Oct 2012

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    Quade Cooper of Australia looks on during a Wallabies match(AFP PHOTO / Michael Bradley)

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    Quade Cooper’s future in the Wallabies jersey is set to come under close scrutiny at an Australian Rugby Union code of conduct hearing next week into comments he made criticising the national team.

    The recalcitrant playmaker will face an ARU hearing in Sydney on Wednesday over a charge of bringing the game into disrepute following incendiary comments to the media and on his Twitter account.

    Senior Wallabies players are understood to be keen to see Cooper punished for the latest in a litany of off-field discretions.

    The Queensland five-eighth’s public airing of his vitriolic criticism of the Wallabies set-up under coach Robbie Deans, including claims of a “toxic environment” has deeply angered current and former players and coaching staff.

    That in itself could ensure the hardline precedent over player misbehaviour set by the ARU when winger Lote Tuqiri’s multi-million dollar contract was torn up in 2009 for off field indiscretions could be followed.

    Cooper, who is sitting out the Wallabies spring tour to Europe due to a knee injury, faces the threat of his current contract, which ends on December 31 this year, being torn up, or the prospect of a hefty fine.

    The World Cup No.10′s history of indiscipline, including a boozy late night incident with Kurtley Beale at a Brisbane nightspot in June and a disagreement between the duo and Wallabies teammate James O’Connor in Paris in 2010 are likely to count against Cooper.

    Former Wallabies coach John Connolly had earlier suggested a year’s ban from the Wallabies could be a possible punishment for Cooper. But the former Queensland mentor stopped short of calling for a ban on Saturday.

    “I have no problem with Quade Cooper as a player or a bloke, but he has to be held accountable for what he said,” Connolly told AAP.

    “Imagine if he was an All Black.

    “Quade needs to realise how lucky he is, most blokes would give their right arm to play for the Wallabies.

    “I don’t know why this hasn’t been hit on the head sooner.

    “But he has criticised the team publicly, said he wasn’t being allowed to play to his potential and wouldn’t play for Australia again and those comments are out of order.”

    ARU chief executive John O’Neill and chairman and former Wallaby Michael Hawker are both likely to sit in on the ARU panel to decide Cooper’s fate.

    The panel might need to tread a fine line on any sanctions against Cooper amid fears he could be lost to the Wallabies and the code altogether.

    Cooper has previously spoken of a desire to play alongside good friend Sonny Bill Williams in the NRL, or he could opt to continue his career in Europe.

    They are two options which would undoubtedly upset the Queensland Rugby Union given the Super Rugby winner has a contract to play with the Reds in 2013, a contract that is dependent upon a top-up from the ARU.

    © AAP 2013
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