Don’t tell Australia’s regular rugby sevens game-breaker that bringing Quade Cooper halfway around the world to watch this weekend’s Sydney world series tournament is a waste of time.
Cooper is a controversial omission from the Thunderbolts’ 12-man squad for the inaugural Sydney 7s despite the Australian Rugby Union insisting his French club, Toulon, release him for the tournament.
A delayed arrival on Wednesday left the Wallabies showman with only one training session with his new teammates and coach Andy Friend with an unenviable decision to make.
Friend chose not to gamble with the sevens novice at the potential expense of a strong team showing and first-day pool showdown with good mate and fellow Rio Olympics hopeful Sonny Bill Williams.
But Cameron Clark, Australia’s star attacking player, denied the whole episode has been a fruitless exercise for the Thunderbolts.
“I don’t think it’s a waste of time at all,” Clark told AAP.
“He’ll take away a lot for being around the group and will be a lot better for it the next time he joins us.”
The centre said this week’s learning, training and watching will pay off when Cooper – slated to play in tournaments in Las Vegas, London and Paris – does eventually make his world series debut
“To win a gold medal you have to be a close-knit group,” he said. “A lot of us hadn’t even met him before so it was a great opportunity for him to get around and meet all the guys and start learning about the game and all our plays and structures.
“When there’s only seven on the field you all have to be moving in sync so it would have been hard for him after half a training session to be thrown into the mix this weekend.”
Clark has made such an impact in his short career since signing to the sevens program straight out of school as an 18-year-old in 2012, that he is in his second year signed up as an ambassador by tournament sponsors HSBC.
He believes Cooper’s natural talents will also see him also be a sevens hit, with time to adapt, but has backed regular playmaker James Stannard to pilot the Thunderbolts this weekend where a semi-final finish should be considered a success.
A near full-strength Australia plays Portugal, Canada and New Zealand in their pool matches on Saturday at sold-out Allianz Stadium.
Atawhai Drive
Roar Guru
Cooper is not eligible for the Australian Sevens team at the Olympics. He is a New Zealand citizen, and travels on an New Zealand passport. He could apply for citizenship but he's by no means certain of getting it. Ask Russell Crowe.
CUW
Guest
nz have travelled with 14 guys this season , according to SGT it makes easier to practice. sbw has been with the team since january and he will only get better and achieve high fitness level by august. cooper if he was serious , shud have opted to play a year of 7s like sbw and messam, simply becoz he has not played modern 7s for donkey's years. sbw looked slow at times even after practicing for a month. if qc played he would fall dead after 5 minutes of running around.
Col Dagger
Guest
Jim, Please, keep it real. Quade Cooper for all his talents and there are many was never a chance at being selected for a Sevens side with one training session. This game is so so different to 15s rugby. Not only is it just the incredible aerobic loads that the sevens players endure over a two day period with contact. They need to be significantly lighter than the well tuned 15's player. Add to this that Sevens has unique patterns of defence and attack that need to learnt at a subliminal levels so when playing against the world elite sides you don't stuff up and let a try in. Last weekend Sonny Bill Williams had a few major mistakes which where almost critical to the teams success. Fortunately he and Quade are remarkable players and for every mistake they have the ability to do something brilliant as well. Quade would always be in the mix of a squad for me as I believe he has the natural skills to be an elite Sevens player. But everybody should be kind enough to let him catch up to the level where everyone else plays first before we herald his coming. This means he must train with the squad for a reasonable period before he will be able to apply his skills to the game of Sevens.