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The first line of Adrian Warren’s article on The Roar starts off with this remarkable assertion: “Quade Cooper could take on one of sport’s most remarkable transformations to another level as national captain following Ben Mowen’s shock decision to quit Australian rugby.”
Given Cooper’s behaviour and comments about the self-described ‘toxic’ Wallabies environment under Robbie Deans and his stated intention that he wouldn’t play in the ‘yellow’ Wallaby jersey, is it a bad joke that the captaincy matter has been raised?
In my opinion, it is a possibility. And I’m not joking.
First, the source of the assertion, Adrian Warren, is one of the most experienced and best AAP sports journalists going around.
You’ll invariably see him in the cluster of journalists gathered around a player or a coach, generally standing slightly behind the person being interviewed with his microphone primed to catch the comments and the questions.
He has a moustache, like me. He once ruefully told me that some players thought that he was me early on when I started writing my rugby columns for The Sydney Morning Herald and he was starting his own career.
The fact that someone as experienced Warren and with his contacts decided to lead with the startling lead suggesting Captain Quade indicates to me that someone in the know has given him a bit of a wink and nod about what is going on in Ewen McKenzie’s mind.
One of the main considerations in all of this is that McKenzie came into the Wallabies coaching job determined to do the opposite of what Deans did.
This anti-Deans methodology lead to the rehabilitation of Cooper into the Wallabies and then his promotion to the position of vice-captain.
McKenzie justified these moves by insisting that Cooper was a reformed character (he needed to be!) and that he was a team leader anyway, as he rather than Will Genia ran the backs.
In a sense, Genia’s leadership career has been matched like cable cars with that of Cooper. When Genia moved forward, Cooper went back. As Cooper has moved forward, Genia has moved back.
One of the most intriquing aspects of the McKenzie regime as Wallabies coach at least initially has been the extent to which Genia has been moved out of the leadership positions he held under Deans and, for a time, out of the starting team itself.
I am wondering if Genia’s secretive attempt to defect to Perth a couple of years, when McKenzie was trying to rebuild the Reds, is possibly behind McKenzies somewhat brutal treatment of Genia.
Certainly, those involved with the Reds were furious at Genia and Tim Horan, wearing two hats as part of the Reds’ management and as a Fox Sports commentator, killed off the transfer with an pre-emptive warning about it on television.
I don’t doubt either that Ben Mowen was either told or it was implied to him that his captaincy of the Wallabies was over. He is not a good enough player to be certain of a starting role for the Wallabies, let alone a permanent starting role.
In 2014 there will be a number of loose forwards ahead of Mowen, including Wycliff Palu (who was somewhat condescending about Mowen’s intention to go to France), Scott Fardy, Scott Higginbotham and David Pocock.
James Horwill will also be available, injury free at last, to stake his claim to the Wallaby captaincy that he was given so dramatically just before the 2011 Rugby World Cup by Robbie Deans.
Will the facts of this appointment, that he was a Deans choice, tell against him when McKenzie makes his decision for the June Tests?
Mowen, anyway, has pre-empted any decision to drop him by accepting an offer to play in France. He should go with the blessing of the Australian rugby community as a player who rose above his limitations to be an inspirational Wallabies captain at a time when the team needed someone with a selfless dedication to the good of the team, rather than his own career, to rise out of the mire of mediocrity that was engulfing the side.
Whether the captain who succeeds him will actually be Quade Cooper remains an open question. The form of a number of players in the 2014 Super Rugby season will be a key factor.
Who would have thought that Tana Umaga would captain the All Blacks and become a charismatic captain at that after his dismal campaign in the 2003 Rugby World Cup tournament?
One of the most wonderful aspects of sport is its redemptive quality. Cooper has behaved in a totally unacceptable way, on and off the field. He has trashed the Wallaby jersey. But he seems to have changed since his second coming to the Wallabies.
Under McKenzie he seems to have cemented his place as the starting fly half and has taken a conspicuous leadership position in the Wallabies set-up.
Captain Quade, whether we like it or not, or want it or not, is on the cards sometime before the 2015 Rugby World Cup, I reckon.