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Why Super Rugby has 'wrecked' Quade Cooper

Quade Cooper against the Reds. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)

Melbourne Rebels star first-five Quade Cooper has revealed the toll Super Rugby has had on him both mentally and physically after returning to the competition from a one-year hiatus.

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Cooper was omitted from the Queensland Reds just three days into new head coach Brad Thorn’s tenure at the end of 2017, and spent the entire 2018 season playing club rugby in Brisbane.

Now apart of the Rebels set-up, the 31-year-old has played more minutes than anyone of his Melbourne teammates this year.

“I was feeling it — my body was pretty wrecked and mentally I was pretty fried,” Cooper told Fox Sports ahead of his reunion with the Reds in Melbourne this weekend.

“Coming off a club footy season into eight straight games — the physicality and the intensity each week was a big step up.

“That bye was great to have for all of us, but more for me — I feel very much refreshed.”

Friday’s Australian derby will be the second meeting between the two clubs in 2019, with the Rebels downing the Reds 32-13 in Brisbane back in round seven.

The fixture was a highly-touted affair, with many viewing it as an opportunity for Cooper to vanquish his demons against the coach that sacked him a year-and-a-half ago, but the 70-test Wallaby said he sees this week’s contest as an important clash for his side, rather than for himself personally.

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Currently sitting atop of the Australian conference with 24 points, the Rebels only lead the Brumbies through points difference, while the Reds and Waratahs trail by just two and three points, respectively.

Despite a shocking opening 20 minutes which saw them ship 26 points against the Hurricanes in Wellington last week, the Rebels fought back to keep the hosts scoreless while scoring 19 points of their own during the remaining 60 minutes of the contest.

After returning to training on Tuesday, Cooper was hopeful his side would be able to avoid a repeat of last week’s start as they look to maintain their lead in the Australian conference.

“It was a difficult game and we’re very hard on ourselves so we’ve approached training this week as anyone probably would and have busted our backsides,” he said.

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“I always am hard on myself and I’ll do what I can to put in a good performance for the team, as it’s a big game for us.”

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SK 2 hours ago
Lessons the Wallabies must heed to turn Lions heartbreak into future success

Brett I love your fresh take on the picture that needed to be painted and ultimately wasnt. I agree there just wasnt enough in it for the ref to call it back and ultimately the ref was consistent the whole night at the breakdown. Australia are damned disheartened now but look how close it came to beating a team Campo said would thrash them by 30. This is the perfect prep for the Rugby Championship and the Boks and NZ. The Boks will be able to bring a scary pack to face the Aussies but it will be just as scary as facing these lads and so the Wallabies for me are making progress. They are not quite the finished article and the soft moments and tries and passive defence just proves it. Schmidt was brought in to make Australia better, he was brought in to make sure Australia improved in time for the Lions to avoid an embarrassment and look he has done that and taken them close so while the result is gutting its a job well done so far. lets see if they can take one step further and pilfer a test off these patchy Lions. Just a quick word on refs and the laws. Can we please tell World Rugby to simplify the game. At least 5 or 6 laws were examined in the wake of the last minute cleanout and several said Tizzano should have been pinged, others say Morgan should have been pinged. If former players and refs cant agree on what the right call was then it means the game is too complex. The refs have a clear mandate to let the game flow. I agree with that but the laws must support the refs. Right now they do not and leave too many holes for the refs to plug. The result is a furore after every major engagement between nations where the refs are abused.

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