Cooper can make Wallabies: Dwyer

I do and I also know and have watched them play since they first played for the All Blacks and there respective provinces. What do you know of their games apart from a stereotype perpetuated in the Australian media? I have also read fairy tales. Your point is? If you had seen them both play you would not be surprised at my comment. Your stereotype that Carlos was a liability is so wide of the mark as to be ridiculous. If Quade was comparable to Carlos he would be the best player the Wallabies had by some distance and would be the first picked. Carlos led the backline. The fact he had more skills than any first five I have seen in my lifetime may not mean much, but nothing the Wallabies have got even comes close. So let us assume you are not making that comparison and are making a comparison of styles. Carlos could play to whatever style the coach wanted and with any style of halfback. Tell me a game he was a liability? He threw an intercept to Mortlock who made a career out of being an opportunist. He went through an out of form patch in his career with his kicking for a couple of seasons over a decade of first class rugby. He was first picked for the AB's ahead of Merhtens and then succumbed to injury. Mehrts held his AB spot with Carlos breaking in intermittently through injury to Merhtens and form slides both ways. The battles between Auckland and Canterbury and Merhts and Spencer were legendary. By and large Merhtens was the most consistent across there two careers, but to suggest Carlos was flakey (which Quade is) or could only play one style (which Quade at this stage of his career is still limited to) is not anywhere near the truth. There are very few international rugby coaches, players and knowledgeable rugby people who don't hold Carlos in the highest regard. Unfortunately Carlos was at the end of his reign when he went to SA and was player coach, but most South Africans I know also have huge respect for him. So your stereotype is at best simplistic and somewhat ignorant IMO. If you ever had the chance to watch either of these players live, you might better understand how silly comparisons are to Quade which are constantly put up. As I said at the beginning if Australia had a player of Carlos's class there would be no question as to your first five.

You asked it before? I apologise if I didn't answer, I don't recall the question. As to what I know about King Carlos, I know that his name represents a very convenient stereotype. As does Mehrtens'. You do know what a metaphor is, don't you?

It's the fact that we are still debating who should play where that is the Deans indictment . There is no possibility that the Lions would ever pick an inexperienced 10 player to play 10 against us . Nor should we . Deans has had a lo of time - cooper is only one tha ticks the box at least for test 1 a Suncorp . Anyone who says JOC has been brilliant at 10 for his few games at the rebels is blind. Even so , this is the Lions and he is a speculation in that position right now. Beale likewise can't now be 10 starter , Toomua will wait for injury or later in year to be considered , and Barnes - solid but better one out - would be to deny a chance of ascendancy via distribution . If there were genuine match hardened established 10 s this would already be clear - there aren't - and Cooper is our best right now - with warts etc - throw in the combo with Genia when going gets tough - the argument for the alternative is not there - right now at least . This is all to do with playing a real 10 , not an out of position winger, centre, fullback - and has nothing to do with Coopers game for Reds ( without Genia) .

So he goes and misses a few sitters in front of the posts to lose us a few games displaying that ugly little smile that was more smirk (f** you) than embarrassment! GIteau is not the coach. Just because deans does differently which may have put him outside of his comfort zone does not make it wrong nor BS. Servant or not he ended up being an insolent little "Git" He needed to go.

can't say I have enough knowledge of Dwyers personal man management to comment, but on the Cooper issue, I'm not saying it's the team's fault, I'm saying it's at least partly Deans' fault. I'm not defending what Cooper did - it was wrong - but I would also question what prompted him to do this? Clearly there were issues but Deans failed to recognise them and "nip them in the bud" before they escalated to the point where one of his previously favoured players made such remarks against him. this does not absolve Cooper of any blame, but loading the blame 100% on his shoulders is also short-sighted. Yes, Cooper should be punished, a heavy fine would have been appropriate, but publicly hanging him out to dry like a pariah puts 100% of the blame on his shoulders while Deans walks away blame free is not fair in my opinion.

Same reason Cooper fell out with Deans. Giteau called Deans plans BS.

The work he does has no impact and he falls off way to many tackles against small opposition. He doesn't carry well and he hits rucks way to high. I don't rate his lineout work either. His calling has no feel for what is appropriate at the time, and he is way to slow off the ground. The Tahs missed a trick big time by letting Mowen go over this bloke.

dwyer pssed a lot of his players off but they werent of gen Y (whine). of dwyers time at leicester there was a lot of dissention then. of course dwyer left before it all blew up but i reckon those players then wouldve revolted if he'd stayed. so cooper immaturely tweets toxic and its the teams fault? doesnt cooper have to take any responsibility wth the way he attacked deans?

I am pretty sure he will not allow that to happen again. I would love to see Dennis fire up a bit. He is a good line out forward and gets through some work but I ve never seen him want to hurt or dominate his opposite like Higginbotham or Palu.

They'd only do that if they thought he was a threat. He isn't ;)

Very good point Dougal... We'll find out on Sunday, but I really don't think Deans will pick Quade regardless of how he goes against the Lions.... IF the Wallabies win the series and Deans gets his contract extended (god help us), this would create quite a conundrum for the ARU - what will they do with Quade's top up going forward? He clearly won't play for the Wallabies while Deans is in charge so do they cancel his top-up and effectively force him to defect to League or Europe? For all his shortcomings, it would be a big loss to Australian Rugby to lose him. As quite a few roarers have pointed out, and I happen to agree, Quade has shown a great deal of maturity this year and purely on a balance of form, experience and potential, he is hands down the best flyhalf in Australia by a long way (JOC doesn't have the form or experience, Toomua lacks experience, Barnes is a kickaholic, Beale is an alocholic and the rest aren't even worth commenting on).

Correction Jiggles, wont Mr Dennis still be attached to the side of the scrum being held in by the opposition?

Asked it before, ask it again. What do you know of Carlos. Sweet FK all I'm guessing.

Dwyer wouldn't let the team, or any individual player, get into a position where they/he thought the environment was toxic... if the team is managed well and communication is clear and transparent, these incidents just don't happen in the first place...

100% - Matt Giiteau played 90 odd tests - why he a Deans fell out I will never know but he was reserved in that Samoan test I thought.

Pete I thought BOD was the pick of the players last night and he positioned himself well to take the pass. His first try was also quality. Manu played a solid game; had a chat with KPM yesterday who was taking liberties with BOD and selling him down the creek a touch early I thought, and talking up Manu as irreplaceable in the Lions. I thought BOD was better last night. I always though Noddy was a good distributor, not an Ella, but good. I always thought he copped a bad wrap for not running the ball enough. When he did he was very good..

Positive rugby, re those charge downs against Carter by his All Black understudy Aaron Cruden. I think that was a tactic of Chiefs coach Wayne Smith, who had Cruden attacking from the blind side and tartgetting the ball from the get-go -- not the player. The same tactic seemed to be used against Cooper -- and I'm sure we will see more of it. I think the charge-downs here are the result of good tactics, not poor play. As tactics change, so play changes.

peterlala - haha agree fully. and also i imagine if someone back in dwyers day had said a toxic tweet about him that player wouldve been dropped. its divisive to the team and the only option for a coach

There is one thing about the whole Deans / Cooper saga I don't understand. Cooper is a $600k a year player, which by any means is a heavy investment by QLD and the ARU. He has components of his game which are brilliant, and other components that need work. From what I am hearing and seeing, the failures appear to be technical failures, that with the right training can be fixed. If Deans is willing to go paddle boarding with Beale, why isn't he or one of his minions willing to spend a day a week with Cooper working on his technical inadequacies. Considering the investment in Cooper, I don't think it is much for the ARU support base to expect. If Cooper's issues are so called 'cracking under pressure' (which I don't agree with), get him a sports psychologist to sort his head out! $600k a year is a lot of money to spend on a player who doesn't even make the final 31 players.

Nick, that was a lovely pass to set up the O'Driscoll try. It reminded me of former Wallaby Michael Lynagh...people criticised his passing, but the ball seemed to end up in the right hands more often than not.