Three Sevens tournaments and Rio 2016: Toulon’s new carrot for Quade

TOULON owner Mourad Boudjellal threatened to send Quade Cooper broke if he didn’t honour his two-year deal with the French club, but now there is an offer of compromise for the Wallabies star.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - AUGUST 28: Quade Cooper of the Wallabies drinks water during an Australian Wallabies training session at Little Manly Beach on August 28, 2015 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

QUADE Cooper is a giant step closer to realising his Olympic Games ambition, with French club Toulon making a concession allowing him to play Sevens for Australia next year.

The development is a significant backdown from earlier threats by Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal that if Cooper did not join his club next year after signing a two-year deal, he would sue Cooper and the ARU for “millions of euros”.

Allowing Cooper to play Sevens as part of his Toulon contract is a major step towards securing the Wallabies playmaker, who wants to stay in Australia despite signing a rich deal with the club in April this year.

Boudjellal’s new offer to Cooper would allow him to play three World Rugby Sevens series tournaments, and compete at the Olympics, if he agrees to honour his commitment to play for Toulon after the World Cup and through to the end of the 2016/17 season.

This indicates a big change of heart from the volatile busissman, who last month threatened on French radio to take legal action against Cooper in the vicinity of $2.5 million, and then joked: “It could make him alone the second most indebted state after Greece.”

That comment earned the ire of Wallabies coach Michael Cheika, who said the Greece debt crisis is not a laughing matter.

Cooper has not made any definitive comments on his future for some time, deferring questions about the subject to after the World Cup, which begins on September 18 and concludes on October 18.

Cooper and his agent Khoder Nasser travelled to France in April, meeting Boudjellal and signing a two-year deal.

But soon after, Cooper got cold feet.

He wanted to sign a long-term deal with the ARU that would allow him to play Sevens in 2016, and then Super Rugby and Tests for the Wallabies from 2017-19.

But his signed multi-million dollar contract with Toulon has left the ARU powerless to intervene.

If Cooper agrees to Toulon’s new offer, he will be favoured to headline the Sydney Sevens tournament at Allianz Stadium on February 6-7.

It is the first time Sydney has hosted a Sevens series tournament and Cooper’s involvement would be a massive boost to the event, which has already sold 25,000 tickets.

Given the proximity to Toulon, the two other tournaments Cooper could logically feature in would be in Paris (May 14-15) and London (May 20-22), which would also suit Australia given they are the two final events in the series before the Olympics.

The French Top 14 final will be held on June 24, while the Olympics begin on August 5, so Cooper would have at least one month of training with the Australian Sevens squad before they head to Rio.

Cooper’s Wallabies teammate Henry Speight is already confirmed to play Sevens next year and will also play three tournaments and the Olympics in a deal agreed to by his Super Rugby franchise, the Brumbies.

But unlike Cooper, Speight has previous Sevens experience, and it’s understood the ARU would prefer Cooper to be available for more than three tournaments if possible.

Australia must still qualify for Olympic participation, however, after failing to finish in the top four of the last annual series.

They’ll play an Olympic qualifying tournament in November.

Originally published as Three Sevens tournaments and Rio 2016: Toulon’s new carrot for Quade