Landing spots for Quade Cooper - an evaluation
In one of the more noteworthy Super Rugby offseason storylines, Reds head coach Brad Thorn made the decision to cut fly-half Quade Cooper from his squad.
The 29-year-old, who has won 70 caps for Australia, has been no stranger to controversy in the past, but it was still a surprising move, with the Reds a team that has seemed in a permanent state of disarray and/or rebuild over the last few years.
As big as the loss of talent is, Thorn clearly doesn’t see Cooper as part of the foundation of what he is trying to build in Queensland and has admitted that he and the Reds will not stand in Cooper’s way if there is interest in the playmaker from abroad.
We look at five potential short-term landing spots for Cooper, before he can reassess his position later in the year and find a new long-term deal.
Clermont Auvergne
The French side have been beset all season by significant injuries at the fly-half position and Cooper would seem to be the perfect medical joker to bring in until the end of the season and help steady the ship.
Admittedly, “steadying the ship” is hardly something that has been synonymous with Cooper throughout his career, but Clermont are ambitious in the way they play and in terms of suiting the style of Cooper, there are only one or two better fits in France than Clermont would seem to offer.
Ulster
The province are currently searching for a fly-half to replace Christian Lealiifano, following the Australian’s move back to Australia and the Brumbies. Lealiifano earned the adulation of the Ravenhill crowd in an impressive short-term deal, where he made his playing comeback from leukaemia and filled the void created by the legal proceedings currently ongoing around Paddy Jackson.
If Ulster are looking for help following the falling apart of the move for Stephen Donald, Lealiifano could be relied upon to sell Belfast and the team to international teammate Cooper.
Sale Sharks
Sale have made no attempt to hide the fact they are looking for a fly-half and that has been the case since Danny Cipriani left the club to return to Wasps in 2016. Cooper is exactly the kind of the high-profile, ambitious playmaker that Sale have been craving and he would tick multiple boxes for the side from the north-west.
Director of rugby Steve Diamond has also been unafraid to take punts on players with chequered pasts and, for the most part, seems to do a good job of keeping players on the straight and narrow and helping rebuild careers.
Leicester Tigers
It’s unlikely Leicester have the salary cap space to pursue Cooper on a short-term deal until the end of the season, but if injury were to strike, some creative accounting and use of the medical joker system could be a way for them to reinforce their thin fly-half options.
With George Ford busy with England for the next seven weeks and youngster Tom Hardwick also away with England U20s – albeit recallable if necessary – Leicester’s fly-half depth has been stretched thin, with Joe Ford the only specialist 10 in the squad. Of course, Matt Toomua can also play the position, but the addition of Cooper would allow Tigers to keep their star man at inside centre.
New Zealand
Could a surprise move across the Tasman be on the cards?
The Chiefs have seen Aaron Cruden depart, the Blues have lost Piers Francis and Ihaia West and the Highlanders are preparing for their last season with Lima Sopoaga. Admittedly, there are some fantastically talented youngsters ready to step up, such as Stephen Perofeta and Tiaan Falcon, but if there is an injury or those franchises want to add some more experience to the group, Cooper could go be an effective way to go.
It’s a long shot, but who knows?
Comments on RugbyPass
🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
27 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
1 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusades , you can keep going.
1 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
27 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
27 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
27 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
27 Go to commentsHaving overseas possessions in 2024 is absurd. These Frenchies should have to give the New Caledonians their freedom.
21 Go to commentsBell injured his foot didn’t he? Bring Tupou in he’ll deliver when it counts. Agree mostly but I would switch in the Reds number 8 Harry Wilson for Swinton and move Rob Valentini to 6 instead. Wilson is a clever player who reads the play, you can’t outmuscle the AB’s and Springboks, if you have any chance it’s by playing clever. Same goes for Paisami, he’s a little guy who doesn’t really trouble the likes of De Allende and Jordie Barrett. I’d rather play Carter Gordon at 12 and put Michael Lynagh’s boy at 10. That way you get a BMT type goalkicker at 10 and a playmaker at 12. Anyways, just my two cents as a Bok supporter.
14 Go to commentsThanks Brett, love your articles which are alway pertinent. It’s a difficult topic trying to have a panel adjudicating consistently penalties for red card issues. Many of the mitigating reasons raised are judged subjectively, hence the different outcomes. How to take away subjective opinions?
11 Go to comments