Wallaby Quade Cooper has rare ability to stretch England beyond breaking point

Quade Cooper is a rugby character loved and loathed in equal measure but he has the ability to direct the outcome of the series.

Quade Cooper kicks the winning penalty against the Springboks. Picture: Getty Images

September 2021. Added time and Quade Cooper was 43m out from the posts, the edge of his goal-kicking range. Success and the world champions, South Africa, would be downed; failure and Australia would lose. Cooper, being Cooper, kicked it. The Wallabies went wild — bar the kicker, who kept his cool.

It was testimony to some nerve. He isn’t even renowned as a goalkicker, but this rounded off a perfect eight from eight. Cooper is a rugby character loved and loathed in equal measure.

This was a moment in which Australia garlanded him with praise. Not bad, considering he had tried and failed so many times to obtain an Australian passport and — with it — citizenship.

At the not so tender age of 33, the New Zealand-born fly half was finally granted citizenship on his fifth attempt. Now 34, he won’t just play for Australia next weekend, he’ll do so as an Aussie. Albeit one who will never escape from the image of old-fashioned Australian larrikin.

Cooper has lived and played his life on the edge.

Those with a penchant for a bit of chaos take his side. The law-abiders loathe him. He is a rule-breaker, a rule-bender.

He has garnered headlines for alleged burglary (the case was dropped), being caught driving without a legitimate licence, a childish food fight and the use of the word “toxic” in relation to the atmosphere of Robbie Deans’ Australian squad.

The young genius who steered Queensland Reds to the Super Rugby title in 2011 found himself on the ropes only a few years later.

His fall had been as fast as his meteoric rise, which had Barry John purring about his class on the Wallaby grand slam tour to Europe in 2009.

The fly half is a fearless soul. Nothing frightens him, but when he had the temerity to make knee contact with Richie McCaw’s head in the year of New Zealand hosting the World Cup in 2011, well, it was an entire country which lost its head. Again, the fly half was adjudged innocent but whatever the verdict, he was Public Enemy No 1.

It wasn’t New Zealand’s finest hour. In the end, the adverse publicity got to him. In the semi-final between Australia and New Zealand, he put the kick-off out on the full and never recovered. There were flashes of genius in the third-place play-off with Wales, but the damage was done.

Michael Cheika dumped him from the Australian side that would eventually make the 2015 World Cup final. In fairness, Bernard Foley, the coach’s fly half from his New South Wales days, was a fine player.

What must have stung even more was being cut from the Queensland Reds squad by the new manager, Brad Thorn, an All Black who was in the side at the time of that controversial 2011 McCaw incident. He dismissed the maverick No.10 as the team’s fifth-best fly half.

His past had caught up with him. Yet just when he appeared down and out, he signed for rival Australian Super Rugby franchise, the Rebels.

Cooper’s Rebels beat Thorn’s Reds in both their meetings.

Drift did set in. His plan to play at the 2016 Olympics came to naught, as Cooper lacked the requisite proof of citizenship.

A stint at Toulon wasn’t memorable; there was talk of rugby league (not for the first time), but it was Japan and Kintetsu Liners who claimed his services.

He wasn’t recalled from Japan in 2021 as first-choice fly half. Dave Rennie, the present Wallaby coach, saw Cooper in the role of mentor for Noah Lolesio, the young Brumbies fly half.

But it soon became clear, both in terms of Cooper’s commitment in training and Lolesio’s travails at Test level, that the head-liner was exactly what the Wallabies needed.

The kick against South Africa was the stuff of legend, but it was the manner in which he so masterfully orchestrated the shredding of the Springboks defence a week later that reminded us all — maybe even New Zealanders — of his enduring class.

There isn’t another fly half in Australia close to Test class. Only Cooper can provide the beguiling combination of skills and structure to send men such as Samu Kerevi and Marika Koroibete across the gain-line. He cuts a calm figure these days. The wild boy is a thing of the past.

One of the most magical fly halves of the past 15 years, he looks like being the greatest threat to Eddie Jones and his winning run against Australia. Cooper’s first season in Super Rugby as a Queensland Red coincided with the resignation of Jones as that side’s head coach.

More than a decade later, they meet again.

Jones will be looking to nullify the veteran; Cooper aiming to cement his place as Australia’s fly half for next year’s World Cup.

The series could swing on whether England can tether this uniquely talented free bird of a fly half. Give Cooper his wings and England will be stretched — perhaps beyond breaking point.

The Sunday Times