Quade Cooper chasing sevens Olympic dream after paying exit fee for French contract

QUADE Cooper has settled on a bold bid to become an Olympian at rugby sevens next year in Rio and will ditch his rich French rugby contract to do so.

Quade ditches France for Olympic dream

QUADE Cooper has settled on a bold bid to become an Olympian at rugby sevens next year in Rio de Janeiro and will ditch his rich French rugby contract to do so.

The gifted playmaker is set to sign a four-year deal to remain in Australian rugby but, as ever, the move comes with additional intrigue.

Cooper’s focus will become the 10 World Series Sevens tournaments that Australia play between December and May before he gets the chance to walk the stage with the world’s greatest athletes at the Olympics in August next year.

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There is an Olympic qualifying tournament that the Aussie sevens team must also nail late in the year to get that rolling.

The arrangement is certain to have the flexibility for Cooper to box next year, but his next move in Super Rugby is a mystery element.

He won’t play Super Rugby next season for the Queensland Reds so it will be his 2017 season plans that are the focus of negotiations.

Cooper is devoutly Queensland and has played 107 games over nine seasons for the Reds.

Strain was put on that relationship when the Queensland Rugby Union pulled out of contract negotiations because of what they called the unreasonable demands of the Cooper camp.

Quade Cooper’s kicking skills will be vital to a successful sevens conversion.

While Queensland cut off dealings with Cooper, Wallabies coach Michael Cheika remained confident a deal could always be done.

Recently, Cheika said “you’d like to think he’s staying” because “that’s definitely the feel he’s giving off” when saying an attractive long-term deal had been put to Cooper to stay in Australia.

The Cooper-for-sevens case has always had appeal with his manager Khoder Nasser because his other star rugby charge, Sonny Bill Williams, has already announced his own sevens course for Rio.

Both Cooper and SBW love the scope of sport beyond simply one code.

Cooper will give the Australian Sevens team a profile it has rarely enjoyed but better still will inject the playmaker that the team has lacked so often.

No contract has yet been signed but it is believed Cooper has made the most important call which is paying the exit fee from his contract with French giants Toulon to allow it to happen.

Cooper’s return to Test rugby as a starting No.10 against South Africa on Saturday night was a mixed bag.

At his best, he delivered the deft inside pass for Adam Ashley-Cooper’s try and fed some silky passes to his supports.

He rarely ran at the defence which was the asset that replacement Matt Toomua brought decisively with his more direct play in the late second half fightback that generated a 24-20 miracle at Suncorp Stadium.

Cheika was fine with the behind-the-back flick Cooper pass that had the hearts of Wallabies fans in their mouths on half-time with Australia deep in their own quarter.

The mechanics of the pass were sure enough but centre Tevita Kuridrani almost seemed surprised at it coming his way.

Cooper can thank prop Sekope Kepu for his trysaving tackle on centre Damien de Allende in the split-second afterwards on that turnover for saving him from a public roasting.

“Tevita takes that ball, he’s away. There’s no way I’m ever going to tell a player not to do that because (with Cooper) he can do it and he made the pass.,” Cheika said.

“Tevita was probably shocked that it came his way because it was an incredible ball. If you get that in the hands, we score at the other end of the field on halftime.

“The lad practices that pass at training. He thought it was on and it was.”

Cheika said there were improvements Cooper could make but stressed that the mix of player strengths across the full 80 minutes in midfield had won the game.

“Overall it was a pretty nice job from Quade. There’s stuff to work on for sure for all of us,” Cheika said.

Originally published as Quade Cooper chasing sevens Olympic dream after paying exit fee for French contract