Does anyone agree with me that Quade Copper is a mug lair with great skills but a headless chook at heart? Take the Reds vs Hurricanes game as an example.
With less than 3 minutes on the clock and after concerted Red forward pressure on their opposites in the Cane’s half, Cooper kicked to his left wing.
He attempted to repeat the try previously scored using the same tactic on the right wing. Canes took the mark and retained posession for the rest of the game culminating in the penalty goal winning the game for them.
Rabidly idiotic play. It took the pressure right off them. Why give the Hurricanes a chance to get the ball? Why not ensure possession stays with the Reds by not kicking?
Why not play for the corners and field position? Why not keep the ball in the forwards and slow play down in their half? Why not do a myriad of things which did not give the Canes a sniff of either the ball or field position?
Either none of these sensible options occurred to what Cooper is pleased to call his mind, or he thought of them and chose the high risk option instead. Either way it was flaky.
Cooper can do some wonderful things and is a talent rarely seen. There is little argument about that. He is a game breaker. The last time we saw anything like him in Australia was when Campese was in his prime.
That’s all very well in attack, but what about defence?
Last Saturday night he did not complete one tackle that I saw. He fell off players, he used his arms, he did not use his shoulders, he did not drive with his legs, without fail he went high and of course got bounced off when he did.
He did not bring anyone down by his own tackle without someone else also tackling with him. In short, he was Campese-like in his ability to wave a player through like a traffic cop at flashing lights. No matter where the Reds tried to hide him his true lack of defensive ability was there for all to see.
But it does not end there. He kicked to his wing when deep in defence in his own in-goal some weeks ago. The game was not in the bag and yet he took this high risk option.
After scoring a try against the Bulls he carried on like a Romanian gymnast. Why? Exuberance – fair enough. But how exuberant would he feel if he mistimed the backflip and ended up with a compound fracture of both legs for his troubles.
When I was at school people like him were penalised for ungentlemanly conduct in showing disrespect for the team against whom they had just scored. They were called show-offs and played in the seconds the next week to show them the error of their ways.
When he is on song he is positively glorious. When he isn’t, God help us. At the World Cup it concerns me the risks he takes will come back to haunt us.
AussieKiwi
Guest
A lot of harsh judgments here! Cooper is by no means perfect as a person or a player (unlike all the knockers I suppose). What I have noticed through Facebook, Twitter etc is the number of young people who contact him saying how much they enjoy his play and want to emulate him. Ok they don't actually say "emulate". More like, "Man, your (sic) f--kin awesome. I wanna play like you". Many of these comments come from youngsters in S Africa, Argentina and the like. The interest he generates is tremendous. Overall he is a hugely positive force. As a player, obviously he is still a work in progress, at only 23. But I think we look back at the Larkhams etc through rose tinted glasses as if they were perfect and never made mistakes. A bit like the old saying, the older I get, the better I was.
Comrade Bear
Guest
Out of all the Australian 10's - Quade would be my first pick, daylight second.
GRumblebum
Guest
Surely, there's a sound case for Cooper handing the goal & penalty kicking over to Mike Harris. Quade kicked away possession countless times against the Waratahs. Nevertheless, the Reds just scraped home. Against the Hurricans, the unnecessary gamble didn't come off. Quade really doesn't need the distraction of missing goals & penalties. Maybe its his ego driving him to aim at being the season's highest points scorer. Full marks to Link for allowing Quade & Digby plenty of rein as entertainers, but it's time for Quade to shed the conversion & penalty duties & realize that the opposition can't score while you're in possession.
Kane
Guest
Exactly, He was just showing off pretending that he hadn't notice the advantage to make what he did look even riskier therefore better after it pulled off
Jerry
Guest
I'd take that claim with a grain of salt. The ball was knocked on a good 5 metres and the other team completely stopped play - what the hell did he think had happened?
Jerry
Guest
He's only played them twice I think - Sydney & Hong Kong, so he'd be 1 and 1. Now that I think about it, he lost the Sydney test with Cruden starting*, so perhaps Mono-ball is his kryptonite given the Canes record against the Reds. *note, this theory ignores the fact that Cruden got subbed off with the All Blacks trailing.
Dave
Guest
How many times did Cooper play at N0.10 against the All Blacks?
Campbell Watts
Guest
Cooper can tackle when he puts his heart and mind into it - he's just lazy and doesn't most of the time! He's big enough to be putiing in the hits but he doesn't use that size - Sam Tuitupou was probably 8-10kg lighter than Cooper yet was one of the most feared Super Rugby defenders a few years back. To me that show the lack of effort Cooper is putting into his D - and that says to me he's not putting in 100% for the team. The same could be said for the show-pony carry on too - more concerned about his own glory than the team's. An incredibly talented footballer no doubt, but he needs to pull his head in a bit and put in more effort for the other 14 guys wearing the same jursey!
Jerry
Guest
Yeah, the two situation are exactly the same. There's no difference between a player watching a lead get squandered after being subbed off and a player who helps squander the lead himself through his own stupid play.
Campbell Watts
Guest
"Quade Cooper has a Carlos Spencer suit on, I picked mine up at the $2 shop" Priceless Lee, priceless!!!! :)
Kane
Guest
He did tell the media he was unaware of that advantage
Kane
Guest
Toe to toe with the All Blacks? 10-2 is not toe to toe
Campbell Watts
Guest
"As for defense, who cares,,,,, but his defense is not the reason the Reds or Wallabies will lose" Uh - Wrong!!! If you look at the Canes attack it was all down the wing where Cooper was defending all night. He was pathetic on defence, the Canes exploited that by running it at him (regardless of where he defended) and they scored tries from his missed tackles. One could say his defence was what lost the game for the reds. Defence is the cornerstone of quality rugby sides! Coopers needs to be a lot better if you want to be putting him in the "world class" category.
Funk
Guest
And would still have been winning at the end if Carter didn't miss that penalty! The Duck wasn't the only one at fault, they were beaten by the better team!
soapit
Guest
there will come a day when he will lose a game through his defence for sure. but in the meantime he'll win 20 games with his attack. if that one loss happens to be the rwc final then thats sport. but yeah, he should be doing extra sessions in the meantime, every extra tackle he can make is a bonus.
sixo_clock
Roar Guru
Completely correct. Quade should be on the reserves bench at Test level, held back as an impact player for when the tiredness rolls in and holes can be exploited. At Super level he is fine as a starter. JOC should be the starting 10 and QC can then be sent on to replace/displace either 10, 12 or 15. If Muggleton can't get through to QC then he should be shown the Berrick Barnes story as told by Wayne Bennett.
johnny-boy
Guest
boom boom :)
Jerry
Guest
If players learn rugby skills from their girlfriend, I don't really wanna know what Byron Kelleher picked up over the years...
Jerry
Guest
Cooper is a better stepper and a better long passer than Carter, I didn't say he was better than Cooper at everything. While he is better than Cooper at some things and worse at some others, his game - unlike Cooper's - has no real weaknesses.
Benz
Guest
Carter might be complete but he still can't light up the backline like Quade.