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Is Quade Cooper the unlikely savior?

31st August, 2016
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Quade Cooper (AFP PHOTO / GREG WOOD)
Roar Guru
31st August, 2016
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1281 Reads

Quade Cooper is back in Australian rugby. He made his comeback against the All Blacks on Saturday and then was announced as the Queensland Reds marquee signing.

With undoubted talent, Cooper’s career hasn’t hit the heights that some would have thought it could do after leading the Reds to the Super Rugby title in 2011. Then he helped drag a team upwards to perform well above the sum-of-its-parts. It may need to happen again.

Firstly, obviously, this is good for the Reds franchise. The Reds are in a very similar position to that of the Wallabies, maybe slightly ahead of them. They have transitioned from the team that won the tournament in 2011. A lot of those players have moved on and young players have replaced them.

They have gone through a couple of tough seasons, but towards the back end of last season there were signs that the green shoots of recovery were starting to blossom. Having Cooper as the pivot in both of those teams will be hugely beneficial as he knows what it takes.

The Reds Super Rugby win in 2011 came from nowhere. The previous seasons they had finished 12th, 14th, 12th, 13, and fifth before being crowned the best side in the Southern Hemisphere. They did it by building up a squad of decent players and have a couple of game breakers, one being Quade Cooper. The backline that started that final shouldn’t have been able to live with the Crusaders but not only did they beat them, both their tries came from backs.

For the Wallabies, it could also be a blessing. After a home whitewash by England then losing twice to the All Blacks conceding ten tries and scoring one the Wallabies are very much in a position of tough choices needing to be made.

Experienced campaigners have to be moved on and new blood must come in to lift the squad.

At the Reds, Cooper is back in a position where the team will once again be built around him. He is a player that needs love. He needs a coach that believes in him and that will let him have his moments of madness as sometimes those moments of apparent madness can win you rugby games. The backline that he will have with him in Brisbane, I would argue, is stronger than the one he had when he won the competition.

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Admittedly Will Genia, at the time, was a better player than Nick Frisby but Frisby is coming along well and will add to his single Test cap very soon if he continues his improvement.

Samu Kerevi, Eto Nabuli, Karmichael Hunt and Chris Feauai-Sautia are all players that can break open a game, and with Cooper pulling the strings there will be gaps for them to exploit. The backline that started the final against the Crusaders was Genia, Cooper, Ioane, Tapuai, Fainga’a, Davies and Lance. I know which one looks stronger to me.

On Saturday for the Wallabies, Cooper received little front-foot ball.

When he did get some decent ball, he put Israel Folau away on his inside. It was a simple pass, but the no-look nature of it, knowing where the space was and where his player would be, is a skill that not all have. Bernard Foley can’t do the same thing.

There was also no obvious game plan that Australia had. With Foley at 12 it stifled what Cooper was able to do. Foley isn’t a 12. He doesn’t know the running lines or the support lines or when to take a rash ball because the 10 is in trouble. With a solid 12 outside him, Cooper’s game will increase ten fold.

If the Wallabies tell Cooper he is their guy, settle on a backline outside him that will take the team forward for the next few seasons and let him play then there may well be a bright future again for Australian rugby. The last three months, they have been predictable and easy to defend against with absolutely no spark.

Quade Cooper has that spark in abundance, you just have to take the rough that occasionally comes with it.

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