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Quade Cooper spotted at a second MLR side a week after training with LA Giltinis
Wallabies star Quade Cooper has been spotted at a second Major League Rugby club, a week after he was sighted training with the LA Giltinis.
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Cooper is in the United States after having guided the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners to automatic promotion to the top division in Japan Rugby League One earlier this month.
Since the end of his club campaign, Cooper has embarked on a trip across the Pacific Ocean, travelling from Japan to America to train with MLR teams as they near the end of their regular season.
Last week, the 34-year-old playmaker was snapped training with the Giltinis in their training kit at their El Segundo headquarters, and now he has been sighted training with one of LA’s rival teams on the other side of the country.
On Friday, Rugby United New York [RUNY] posted images of Cooper in their training kit practising with their squad in the Big Apple.
The 75-test pivot also posed for a photo with Nehe Milner-Skudder, who – along with Waisake Naholo – is one of two former All Blacks wings who have recently been recruited by RUNY.
As was the case with his brief stint with the Giltinis, it’s understood that Cooper’s involvement with RUNY will be nothing more than a training run.
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It’s also expected that Cooper will return to Australia in the next few weeks as one of three foreign-based Wallabies players to be picked in Dave Rennie’s national squad for the upcoming three-test series against England.
Cooper’s selection in that squad will be vital if the Wallabies are to clinch what would be a momentous series win on home soil given his contributions to Australia in the test arena last year.
After a four-year hiatus from international rugby, Cooper helped the Wallabies clinch five successive victories for the first time in a non-World Cup year since 2008.
In his first test back, he landed an injury time penalty to beat the Springboks on the Gold Coast, before playing a key role in securing back-to-back victories over South Africa in Brisbane a week later.
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Cooper went on to star in three further wins against Argentina and Japan before being made unavailable to travel with the Wallabies on their end-of-year tour of Europe due to his commitments with Kintetsu.
Without his services, the Wallabies lost all three of their tests against Scotland, England and Wales – the first time they went winless on a European tour in nearly 50 years.
It’s for that reason that he will again play a prominent role for Australia in their first assignment of 2022, especially with James O’Connor in doubt for the English series after sustaining a hamstring injury while playing for the Reds last week.
RUNY, meanwhile, will look to secure their place in the MLR playoffs with a win over Old Glory DC in Leesburg on Sunday.
Victory over Old Glory DC would ensure that RUNY finish as one of the Eastern Conference’s top three teams heading into next week’s final round of the regular season.
A top-three finish in the Eastern Conference would assure RUNY of a place in next month’s conference semi-finals, where they would likely face Rugby ATL.
Comments on RugbyPass
Dagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
3 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
3 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
36 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
2 Go to commentsHats off to Fabian for a very impressive journey to date. Is it as ‘uniquely unlikely’ as Rugby Pass suggests, given Anton Segner’s journey at the Blues?
3 Go to comments