WILL GENIA: Quade is like a grand chess master - but Eddie must pick him and Bernard Foley for the Wallabies

Let me say this off the top, Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley must be on the plane to France with Eddie Jones later in the year.

If I had to pick one for the No.10 jersey, it’d be Quade. But both are world class and their performances since the 2019 World Cup on both the domestic and international stage have shown that.

Who wears the No.10 jersey at a World Cup is always a topic for discussion.

A look through history points to needing one at the peak of their powers, too.

In fact, World Cups are synonymous with who wears the No.10 jersey: Grant Fox, Michael Lynagh, Joel Stransky, Stephen Larkham, Jonny Wilkinson, Dan Carter … the list goes on and on.

Will Genia says he would pick Quade Cooper and Bernard Foley in his Wallabies squad for 2023. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

Quade could join that list come October 28.

He’s like a chess grand master these days.

Is he as exciting as he was when he was younger? Probably not.

When you’re younger, you’ve got a little bit more elasticity in your body, a little bit more give, a yard extra pace and the exuberance of youth, and you’re playing a lot on confidence.

When you’re younger, you’re playing speed chess: ‘I’m just going to go for it, I’m going to make this big move and try to get to the end of the board, I don’t care what happens, I’m going to be reckless, but it’s going to look good.’

Now, Quade’s playing chess in the sense that everything’s calculated, everything’s measured, everything’s about things that you’ve learned along the way, and thinking two or three moves ahead.

That’s the biggest change in Quade’s game.

He just understands the game. It’s similar to all of us older players like myself, Bernard or even the guys playing in Japan like Matty To’omua.

People tend to write the older players off because they think they’re past it. But if you’ve still got the drive and the work-ethic to take care of your body and improve your game, your skills, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be a better footballer.

He sort of represents that for all of us.

Quade Cooper during a Wallabies training session at Royal Pines Resort on July 27, 2022 in Gold Coast. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Around 2011, everything was coming off for Quade because of his exuberance.

He was willing to try things, he was feeding off the confidence of having had a good couple of years where he won the Super Rugby comp.

When you’re playing off confidence, it only takes one little hiccup for it to sort of go away, one little mistake.

Obviously, he did his ACL at the end of our 2011 campaign which didn’t help him, but you fast forward to now and he’s not playing off confidence, he’s playing off discipline – and that’s the key difference.

Discipline means always turning up and doing the work no matter how you feel, whether that’s working on footage or film, or work in the gym or on the field, and just studying the game.

And so, again, the best analogy now is he’s just out there playing percentages, playing chess.

He’s making decisions on the go based on pictures and cues that he’s seeing and he’s involving his teammates more and looking for second touches and getting into second or third receiver.

When he was younger because of his youth and wanting to be the man, so to speak, he wanted the ball all the time.

He was always in at first-receiver, always played one-pass rugby. It worked to an extent back then, but it just wasn’t sustainable.

Now you’ve seen the growth that he’s had in his game, where it’s about embracing his teammates. He’s playing off discipline as opposed to confidence.

Quade Cooper now prides himself over his fitness. (Photo by Steve Bardens/Getty Images for Barbarians)

The 2023 Quade hasn’t just appeared overnight. He’s been at the top of his game for a few years.

The biggest area that he’s made strides in is his understanding of system footy.

He’s always had incredible natural instinct and natural talent, and we played that style of rugby back in 2009-10-11-12-13 with the Reds and into the Wallabies to an extent. But the way that game has changed now, defences are just so good and so incredibly well organised.

A lot of teams run the same defensive patterns around what the wings do, what their fullbacks do, whether they do line speed or they’re soft in defence. So defences are just so good, but it’s his ability to be able to understand the system that not only the defence is putting in place, but also the system that they want to play in attack.

Back in 2010 and 2011, Ewen McKenzie and Jimmy McKay understood that guys like myself, Quade and Digby Ioane were naturally quite instinctive football players. So, they did really well to design a game plan around the way that we saw the game and played the game.

We didn’t like to be shackled by too much structure, so it was very simple. We had a call. The call was ‘broncos’ just hitting up in the midfield and ‘cowboys’ was hitting out wide, and essentially the forwards worked the same way and then it was basically myself and Quade, who off the cuff made the decision if we wanted to go the same way or go back the other way.

A lot of that was determined by whether we got over the gain line or were behind the gain line.

That was amazing for our growth as football players in terms of understanding the game.

But, again, the way that the game has developed now, with defences so good, it doesn’t work in this current rugby climate because defences are just far too well organised, so it’s a little bit more difficult to play that style of footy.

Quade Cooper and Will Genia celebrate winning the 2011 Super Rugby title after beating the Crusaders at Suncorp Stadium on July 9, 2011 in Brisbane. (Photo by Jonathan Wood/Getty Images)

Quade struggled initially when the game moved to a more system-based game, particularly when Michael Cheika took over the Wallabies at the end of 2014.

‘Cheik’ played system footy, the Waratahs played system footy, where everybody knew where they had to be at all times on the field in certain parts of the field. It was about wearing teams down just through a war of attrition, whereas we were playing off the cuff footy, instinct, front-foot ball, keep the space, run to space and cross kicks.

Going into that system that Cheik wanted to play it was a little bit easier for a halfback to adapt because essentially my role was just moving to the breakdown and playing certain pods or playing the 10 based on what he was calling.

Quade wasn’t used to that and he was probably a little bit resistant to it initially because he’d been obviously incredibly successful with the way that he was playing the game before.

It probably took him a little bit of time to understand that and learn that, but he mastered it probably around 2019-20.

Quade Cooper (R) and Bernard Foley on October 6, 2016 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

He’s benefitted from the care he’s put into his body, too.

He’s put a lot of work into it. Work in the gym, work on the field around his speed, his acceleration, his conditioning. He’s taken a lot of pride in that space.

I think when you see him physically, he’s in the best condition I’ve seen him. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s fit. That’s giving him confidence to be able to play the game that he wants to play because we all know that he’s got an exceptional rugby brain and exceptional skills, but it’s the physical element in rugby that’s one of the key facets of the game, so if he wants to defend in the front line, it’s about being confident and making his tackles.

While I would pick Quade in the No.10 jersey at the World Cup, Bernard’s world-class. He’s got to go to the World Cup.

I’ve always thought really highly of Bernard.

He’s a world-class player. And he’s tough. That’s one thing I really enjoyed about playing with him is he always turned up no matter what the score or pressure was. He’d always turn up with a positive attitude, want to get his teammates out of trouble, want to work hard, work hard in defence, work hard in attack and want to take the game on.

It’s hard to have this conversation because it’s almost like these guys have been written off having gone to Japan, but they’re world-class plays.

Bernard’s still a world-class player, Quade’s still a world-class player regardless of his age.

The other question is whether Eddie takes two or three playmakers.

If it’s two, it’s Quade and Bernard. If it’s three, I’d take Carter Gordon for the experience.

I know the way Eddie works. He likes older heads, he likes experienced players running the ship, he’s really big on that.

Will Genia says he always respected Bernard Foley for being tough and showing up. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

He wants the senior players to run the team essentially and guys like Quade and Bernard, who have excellent footy brains, are going to be so crucial to the way that they want to play the game because you’ve got to remember Eddie’s coming in, and he’s trying to establish a new playing style.

Taking Quade out of it for a bit, I think what Eddie will do is reward guys in the first couple of Test matches based on form in Super Rugby.

What he’s spoken about in the media and in rugby circles, he’s been speaking about how important it is to be playing rugby in Australia and the guys playing Super Rugby.

I think he’ll reward the guys who performed well in Super and maybe that means that there are a couple of guys that potentially you wouldn’t have picked to be involved in the first or second Test match.

But then I think he will build into it, and you’ll probably see guys that are more likely going to the World Cup feature perhaps towards the back end of the abbreviated Rugby Championship so they can get some time.