1
'Beautiful, Quade Cooper' - legends heap Twitter love on Aussie fly half
By Paul Smith
The last 48 hours have produced plenty of talk about sporting fairy-tales.
We started with the one about the 18-year-old girl who packed her bag and headed off to New York seeking fame, fortune and the US Open.
Of course that had a particularly unlikely twist - since she had to win three more matches than anyone else - and who could possibly believe a plot line that saw her simply obliterate all-comers without dropping a set?
Hot on the heels of the Emma Raducanu fable came one which possibly stretched credulity even further.
When Australian boss Dave Rennie recalled Quade Cooper to start against World Cup winning South Africa not everyone was convinced.
Sky Sports News described the 33-year-old's recall as "a major surprise" before adding "the mercurial play-making talent returns to the test arena for the first time in four years."
Cooper proceeded to kick eight goals - a 100 per cent return - including a match-clincher which split the uprights after the full-time hooter had sounded.
Throw in a colourful back story which sees the New Zealand-born no.10 denied Aussie citizenship on no fewer than four occasions despite having appeared over 70 times in green-and-gold and lived in his adoptive country since the age of 13, and you have the makings of a future Steven Spielberg blockbuster.
And to top things off, Cooper's brilliant display has since received praise from plenty of rugby union royalty, starting with perhaps the most famous goal-kicker of them all for whom one word and a tag said it all.
Growing up in Australia, this man may have been more of an idol for Quade than Jonny Wilkinson
Recent Wallaby teammates certainly liked what they saw...
Even his current rivals had to pay their respects
From one legend to another...
While another former Wallaby great decided he would like this particular fairy-tale to have a different kind of happy ending.
The sequel follows shortly...
Trending on RugbyPass
2
Wallaroos captain reflects on Black Ferns’ success with sevens stars
3
Springboks flyhalf's latest injury worry
4
Initial Immanuel Feyi-Waboso injury update does not sound promising
5
Latest Comments
The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
Go to comments