Cheika sees Cooper in Wallabies' future

I think that is exactly the point. Coopers style is similar to Spencer's in that both are unpredictable. Yet under pressure that unpredictability serves to impact on their own teams as much as the opposition. With Auckland when it dominated Carlos was brilliant but under pressure of the Wallabies was normally a chook with his head cut off. Trying high risk plays that with so little time and space served to impact negatively on his own side. Both brilliant players but both susceptible to high error rates when under pressure simply because they try to do the same things they succeed with in more space. Being able to adapt to different pressure situations is what usually costs them both.

TWAS, Wondering, then, what you think would have been the very best squad? Cheika picked the best match day 15 but that was never going to be good enough to beat the AB's. For example, Cheika persisted with Simmons who's probably ranked 12th in the world at best but he was the best option we had as a line-out caller, so I would have picked him too. QC wasn't kicking goals and would've been smashed by the AB's and is a yellow-card liability. I had dearly hoped he would play his way into the no.10 jersey. Foley demanded selection due to goal and penalty kick stats and ability to drop back and defend as well as general reliability. Cheika also persisted with Slipper even though Slipper has been dropping his side of the scrum in internationals for the last 2 years just as Ben Alexander had done. But who else is better? As for no.12 I think Giteau's selection was warranted. I would liked to have seen Kerevi's inclusion in the larger squad, but who to drop? Who else do you think should have been included in the squad and who dropped? Do you think that would have made a difference to the final XV chosen? I think Douglas's selection at 2nd row was justified, can't see anyone objecting to that. Mumm's selection over Horwill is to me perhaps the most arguable. But I can't go as far as to say that Horwill's inclusion in the squad would have changed the course of events. In the end I think Izzie's performance was less assured than most would have anticipated. However, going into the RWC, I wouldn't have been choosing Beale ahead of him. Who would you have not taken to England?

DiploMatt.. It seems you have some past unresolved issue with Carlos spencer? Then Take your beef up to the man himself & ask him your question.. My point, in relation to this article, is QCs value in variation for the WBs attack!

Yep insightful accurate comments, the hallmark of the Reds fans.

... pants on fire.

Remind me again, Peximus how many World Cups did King Carlos win?

end of discussion.. press conference in toulon been and gone. good luck to the guy on his future..

am feeling positive and optimistic.. see us in the finals!!

It won't and thats probably the point. Going to be a another hard year.

Cheika says he wants to learn every day. I hope he is not just talking about the players. Next year we will find out if he has learned anything from the RWC. I think he was shell-shocked after the Bledisloe II capitulation and decided to pick the one team for all the major games and leave the best players on the pitch all game. Injuries dictated the replacements , not tactics. Hansen had the courage and insight to replace the Smiths in the final.

Folks knocking Cheika here are missing the point. There is too much added to OZ rugby by him for criticisms to hold water. Of course there were things that any idiot can criticise. But Cheika has fixed some big things, He has restored pride, primacy of process, and a tenacity for excellence that has been missing for the best part of a decade. Rod McQueen was a simple player and a sophisticated coach. So is Cheika. We are lucky we have him. Not because he is perfect. He isn't. But because he has the Wallaby rising. And I am starting to wonder how high this Wallaby can hop. He has had an extremely short a time in the role. He started as a part time national coach and he took this magnificent group of fine men from an 18 point deficit to within 4 points of the greatest rugby team in the history of the universe - possibly all sporting teams in all universes (if you don't believe this, read some NZ press). Make no mistake, the Wallaby is rising. And Cheika is leading. Those looking at this falter at the last hurdle as failure, have severe 'glass half empty' syndrome. OZ fans prepare yourselves for months of hubris from fans of the most magnificent and humble team known to sport. And prepare yourselves also for the turning of the tide in the fortunes of the Wallaby. This team has given us reason to believe. And that belief is not going to go away just because the team in black had a lucky game while playing the survivors of Pool A.

The wallabies were comprehensively out played by players who regularly comprehensively outplay most of them at super rugby level. Not exactly a shock and hardly Cheika to blame. I think Cheika made some errors along the way, but that's not why we were only in the game when they had 14 men. If we'd lost by 7 points or less I'd consider that Cheika's selection errors (not errors, but what I consider failure to select the absolute very best squad he possibly could have) held us back, when the fact is the two teams and what Cheika had to work with to begin with were still quite a gap apart.

I preferred the unpredictable maverick attacking style of the 2011 wallabies. Mercurial QC, like Carlos spencer for the ABs, is a complete marvel in his mode of attacking raids! And he combined well with Genia too! This time round every time Phipps came on for genia (scratching my head why the subbing takes place) I held my breath.. The guy Phipps seems to pass to nobody and puts everyone in a panicky quick recovery mode.. Typified in the eng vs WBs game.. Missed QC in the final too

it didn't take the reds supporters long to go back to business as usual

Cheika will never let a Reds player into the starting side, if he can help it. He is a dyed-in-the-wool New South Welshman. At one point he tried to drop Simmons. This is the imperative for as long as the ARU chooses to keep him in the job. Cheika was comprehensively out- coached By Hansen in the final. Giving him the Coaching award is like giving that English forward Man-of-the- Match.

imo the game that sealed Coopers fate was the match at eden park where he tackled smith high, got ent off and nz scored like 20 points in that 10 minutes. issue with cooper is his ability to mix the brilliance with the cringe-worthy and often at crucial times. if u add the points he contributes and deduct the points he gives away the net result will be zero to be polite :)

It should be a basic rugby skill. I'm surprised that Bob Dwyer is so gushing in his praise of Foley and Giteau, because in his words, he describes a rugby player as somebody who can commit defenders, and give the ball to players outside them in space, which is not something that both have done a lot (certainly Foley more than Giteau though).

If you mean by "players who attract defenders, creating space for those outside them and can distribute to those players." to mean people like Cooper, Dagg, SBW, Folau Beale, I would be happy to withdraw the word "game breaker/changer"

I disagree we need a game breaker. I do personally think Foley is not able to do it all himself, and that he is inferior at bringing in the other backs when compared to Cooper though. I think we need players who attract defenders, creating space for those outside them and can distribute to those players.

Spot on Peximus.