'I said f*** straight away': Quade Cooper tables All Blacks theory as reason for World Cup axing

Former Wallabies flyhalf Quade Cooper has tabled his theory on why Eddie Jones dropped the mercurial playmaker on the eve of the Rugby World Cup last year.

After five years in the international wilderness, Cooper made a miraculous Wallabies comeback in 2021 under Dave Rennie leading the team to five straight wins before an Achilles injury sidelined him.

When he returned to full health, the Wallabies had a new coach in Eddie Jones with just nine months remaining until the World Cup.

Cooper started the first two Tests of the Rugby Championship campaign in 2023, a heavy loss to the Springboks in South Africa and a tight loss to Argentina at home in Sydney.

But it was his return to New Zealand in the second Bledisloe Test that he believes cost him a place in the Rugby World Cup squad.

“I came on with like 10 or 15 minutes left to play, trying to chase this game,” Cooper told Ebbs and Flows Sporting News podcast.

Cooper recalls the last period of play against the All Blacks where Australia had a chance to win the game.

The flyhalf had kicked a 46-metre penalty to level proceedings 20-all with eight minutes to go.

With four minutes remaining the Wallabies were hot on attack around halfway when Cooper saw a short side opportunity.

“We get like a three-on-one and I was just like in a hurry, just went boom. I looked, Whitey threw me the ball, as soon as it hit my hands I felt the paint, touch line on it, and I’d already looked so I went to try and do quick hands.

“It just started to slip straight through my hand. I said f*** straight away in my head. I was like okay that’s the game.”

Cooper’s cold drop gave the All Blacks a scrum 40-metres out, from which the drew a penalty to ice the game. Richie Mo’unga kicked the game-winning penalty from that spot for a 23-20 win.

The veteran flyhalf said “he knew” he wasn’t going to be picked in the World Cup squad to head to France after that moment.

“I just knew that moment for me, I already had a feeling that I wasn’t going to make it,” Cooper recalled.

“But now that solidified it in my head, because I know how Eddie is and he’s going to be super pissed off that I basically lost that game.

“So he’s like going to go “f*** it, I’m not taking him, he’s pissed me off’. You know, so that’s how I felt.”

Cooper’s intuition proved to correct as Jones selected just one flyhalf in young Carter Gordon to head to Japan, relying on fullback Ben Donaldson as a back-up option.

At the time Jones had gone public with the news that he couldn’t reach Cooper by phone, but the veteran said that the former head coach didn’t have the respect to tell him directly why he had been left out in the first place.

“You hear all the other boys saying oh yeap, messaging each other, other guys have been called to say that they hadn’t been picked,” he said.

“I just felt a little bit disrespected in that sense. I felt like I was close enough with Eddie for him to just call and be like this is why, or whatever.”

The final Bledisloe game in 2023 against the All Blacks in Dunedin remains Cooper’s last ever game for the Wallabies.