1
Report: Quade Cooper set to miss remainder of England series
By Sam Smith
Wallabies flyhalf Quade Cooper withdrew at the last minute from Australia's impressive win over England in the first of their three-match series and a report out of Australia suggests he won't feature for the remainder of the series.
Cooper pulled up lame in the final stages of the Wallabies' warm-up ahead of their match on Saturday night and was replaced in the No 10 jersey by youngster Noah Lolesio, with the experienced James O'Connor coming onto the bench.
Following the match, coach Dave Rennie confirmed that Cooper had injured his calf but the magnitude of the damage was unclear.
"We’re not sure the extent of that but he couldn’t push off the calf, so we’ll assess and have a clear idea during the week,” he said.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the prognosis is less than ideal, with Cooper certainly out of the second test and likely to miss the third as well.
While the Wallabies will still aim to get their most experienced out-half fit and ready for action in time for the final test of the series in Sydney, the reality is Cooper will likely not feature again for Australia until the Rugby Championship kicks off on August 6, when the Wallabies take on Los Pumas in Argentina.
Cooper played a significant role in Australia's successful Rugby Championship last season, which saw them finish second on the overall ladder. While Lolesio had been handed starting duties for the opening five matches of the year - against France and New Zealand, Cooper reinstated himself as the first-choice No 10 in the squad after linking up with the team part-way through the campaign and Lolesio was initially left out of the Wallabies for the end-of-year tour, only to get a reprieve when Cooper withdrew himself from the selection.
On Saturday night, however, Lolesio cut a composed figure at Optus Stadium and helped guide the home team to a 30-28 victory - ending an eight-game losing streak against one of Australia's traditional rivals.
With Cooper unlikely to feature again throughout the three-match series, Lolesio is likely to hold down his spot in the No 10 jersey.
Cooper isn't the only player who will be missing from at least the next future, however, with Tom Banks (broken arm) and Allan Alaalatoa (concussion) both sidelined for the second test.
In better news for the Wallabies, prop Taniela Tupou is fit and available for selection and will likely swap straight into the starting line-up for the crock Alaalatoa.
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