Wallabies v Springboks: Quade Cooper reaches Test caps milestone

Quade Cooper tonight against the Springboks at Suncorp Stadium will finally earn his 60th Test cap for the Wallabies.

Quade Cooper will play his 60th Test for the Wallabies tonight against South Africa. Picture: Annette Dew

Tonight against the Springboks at Suncorp Stadium, Quade Cooper will finally earn his 60th Test cap for the Wallabies, the one he thought he would never reach under Michael Cheika.

When he was stranded on 58 Tests at the end of last year’s World Cup, it seemed Cooper’s international career was over. He was heading to Toulon, two caps short of the Giteau Law threshold which would allow him to be selected from overseas. So unless he packed up and returned home, Cooper could never be picked for Australia again. Even then, with Cheika having such faith in Bernard Foley’s playmaking at five-eighth, any additional Tests seemed a forlorn hope.

But just as everything was looking so out of shape for the 28-year-old, finally events began to fall his way. Foley hit an inevitable flat patch, unable to sustain his brilliant World Cup form during his sabbatical in Japan, followed by another Super Rugby campaign with the Waratahs, and Cooper, who had returned from Europe a chastened but also improved footballer, was on hand to get his chance in Wellington against the All Blacks a fortnight ago.

He did surprisingly well, with Foley playing outside him at inside centre, taking over from the injured Matt Giteau. Cooper was put in a number of positions where he could have overplayed his hand — as he certainly has done in the past — but instead he performed solidly. He wasn’t brilliant, nor was Foley, but when Wallabies assistant coach Steve Larkham revealed yesterday that combinations were left intact from the All Blacks to the Boks to give players the chance to sort out their problems, there is little doubt that this was the pairing he most had in mind.

“They had the opportunity against New Zealand over in New Zealand and we thought it worked quite well and we want to give that combination another chance,” Larkham said.

“Quade had a great game for his first game for a long time. He was really energetic at training and we’ve seen that again this week. I think having that combination of Quade and Bernard together will give Quade a lot of confidence.”

Indeed, it may well be that one of the lessons Cheika learned from the England series was the need to duplicate the 10-12 pairing of ­George Ford and Owen Farrell, who were the main drivers behind Eddie Jones’s 3-0 victory.

The comparable skills of Cooper and Foley might yet grow into a formidable pairing. But for that to happen, they must steer Australia to their first win of the season tonight against a desperate South Africa. Ironically, just as he brings up his Giteau Law quota, Cooper no longer needs it. Because he has signed a three-year deal with the Queensland Reds, his tally of Test caps no longer counts. Still, how he performs tonight against the Boks’ No 10 Elton Jantjies, a player with whom he has often been compared, will determine whether Cooper pushes on to achieve a century of caps, as Larkham did.

Cooper has an 8-4 win-loss record against South Africa, including wins in Bloemfontein (2010), Durban (2011) and Wellington (2011), but if Australia are to win tonight David Pocock — and his partner in crime, Michael Hooper — must perform as Pocock did during that epic World Cup battle with South Africa in New Zealand.

Springboks captain Adriaan Strauss warned that they had fully prepared for a breakdown battle.

“Pocock and Hooper are very good on the ground,” Strauss said.

“The breakdown is going to be a battle. We need to front up there. There is a lot of tactics to get those guys out of the game but we just need to be sharp and be aware of where they are on the pitch and where they’re placing themselves to make those steals, to slow the ball down. We are very aware of that and we have prepared for that.”

With South Africa coming off a loss to Argentina and Australia on a five-match losing streak this season, there is an enormous amount at stake, as reflected by the world rankings. Win, and Australia will take over from the Boks at No 3 behind New Zealand and England; lose, and they will sink to fifth as Wales overtake them.

Australia under Cheika have done their best to studiously avoid duchessing referees before matches but the tactic clearly is not working, and he and captain Stephen Moore met last night with match official Nigel Owens, under whom Australia have lost six out of seven.

“We’re looking at all avenues, just to try to get a better relationship there,” Larkham said. “It’s not about trying to trick the referee or anything like that. It’s about being able to communicate with the referee. We’re not trying to complicate the matter. We’re trying to get a better relationship between the captain and the referee.”