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Watch: Booing Kiwis left stunned as Quade Cooper delivers virtuoso performance in 2013
The level of vitriol plastered at Wallaby flyhalf Quade Cooper by Kiwi crowds was still high a full two years after the 2011 World Cup. The booing antics had become a poor habit, while cheering errors by Cooper was commonplace throughout New Zealand stadia.
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The last game of the 2013 Bledisloe series was to be played under the roof in Dunedin at Forsyth Barr Stadium, and the Wallabies were looking to avoid a clean sweep after going down 47-29 in Sydney and 27-16 in Wellington.
In both prior losses to the All Blacks, Cooper had been only a flyhalf replacement but had since started four tests on the trot heading into the final Bledisloe clash. It would be an opportunity for Cooper to silence the naysayers and earn the respect of New Zealand crowds.
Quade Cooper Haters have small minds to go with our small country and for the Guys a small something else #NZLvAUS
— 2Tapu (@2TAPU) October 19, 2013
Booing Quade Cooper is still a thing in 2013? Come on.
— Ben Coles (@bencoles_) October 19, 2013
Hey Kiwis you really need to get over booing Quade Cooper – it's childish, pathetic and really small-minded!
— Ali (@AliGoneski) October 19, 2013
The Wallabies immediately started on the front foot with an early break to Israel Folau after recovering the kickoff.
Receiving a penalty from a scrum shortly after, Cooper lined up his first kick of the night while boos echoed around the enclosed arena. He drilled it straight down the middle to give the Wallabies a 3-0 lead.
“Couldn’t be straighter, this could be a good night for Cooper,” former All Black Justin Marshall forewarned on the commentary call.
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A Wallabies attacking pattern from a lineout used a heavy set of forward runners around the corner before eventually settling deep inside the All Blacks’ 22. Cooper calmly dropped back into the pocket and confidently slotted a drop goal with advantage playing.
More boos rained down on Cooper’s second penalty attempt, which was again thumped high and through the uprights.
Two try-saving tackles by Cooper on Kieran Read and Aaron Smith in the space of twenty seconds just a metre shy of the tryline kept the Wallabies in the match midway in the first half.
An explosion of All Blacks tries stretched the lead to 30-12 but a late Wallabies surge paid dividends when Quade Cooper set up Adam Ashley-Cooper with a long floated pass. His sideline conversion closed the gap to 30-19.
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The Wallabies kept fighting back but couldn’t reduce the deficit, admirably going down 41-33, with Cooper a central figure in an Australian side that put up their largest score against the All Blacks since 2008 when they won 34-19 in Sydney.
Quade Cooper finished with a perfect night off the tee, kicking six from six and with the drop goal finished with a personal tally of 18 points and a try assist.
Prominent New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi led the praise online for Cooper, calling him a great player.
Quade is a great player
— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) October 19, 2013
Quade Cooper had a ridiculously good game at the weekend man
— Jon Younie (@JonYounie15) October 23, 2013
Pin point accuracy from Quade Cooper… Come on @QantasWallabies ???
— Erin Molan (@Erin_Molan) October 19, 2013
Did anyone expect that game from Quade Cooper? The more I think about it the more impressed I am. He has been the easiest target in Oz rugby
— Georgina Robinson (@geerob) October 19, 2013
You Maori that hate on Quade Cooper – shame on you.
— Morgan Godfery (@MorganGodfery) October 19, 2013
Great and entertaining rugby match…. Better showing from the Aussies… Quade, top class 2day.. Final score to the All Blacks 41-33
— robertmarawa (@robertmarawa) October 19, 2013
Amazing kicking from Quade Cooper tonight!! 100% record!! #proud #NZLvAUS #bledisloe
— Caelie Jones (@caeliejones) October 19, 2013
After the game, Cooper said the team was heading in the right direction after being away on tour with each other in South Africa and Argentina.
“As a team we’re heading in the right direction and the more good games put together, on a personal note, the better the performance as a team,” he added.
“You’re put in a position where you’re living together basically. Six weeks away as a team you get to know each other on and off the field, you get to see peoples’ habits, their traits, things that you may not necessarily like about the players but you have to work hard and the things you like, you build on those.
The 2013 end-of-year tour following the final Bledisloe match may have been Quade Cooper’s finest stretch of games for the Wallabies, orchestrating wins over Six Nations champions Wales, Ireland, Italy, and Scotland while falling at Twickenham to England by 20-13.
Comments on RugbyPass
We will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
2 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
2 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
9 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
9 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to commentsI wonder what impact Samson has had on their attack, as the team seems less prone to trundle it up the middle, take the tackle and then trundle it up again. I lost faith in the coach last year as the Rebelss looked like a 2nd/3rd rate South African team. I also disliked Gordon standing back, often ignored as the forward battle went on and on. Maybe its our Aussie way of not getting off our A***’s until the enemy is at the gate.
86 Go to commentsThanks for the write up. Great to see the Rebs winning, I am a little interested in how they will go against the remaining kiwi teams, I think they’ve only played Hurricanes and Highlanders but how great to see these players performing!! I also see Parling has a job beyond June 30! A good move by RA? Also how do you fix the Rebels previously scratchy defence?
86 Go to commentsbe smart - go black
14 Go to commentsNext week the Crusaders hopefully have Scott Barrett back. Will be great to have the captain back. Hopefully he will be the All Black captain as well.
12 Go to commentsExciting place to be for the young fella. I expected he was French Polynesian when I saw him included in the France 6N squad (after seeing him in NZs), and therefor be strong grounds we might loose him to rugby down here. Good, in that he is good enough to warrant such a profile, and from a journalism’s fan interaction aspect, to finally get a back ground story on the fella. Hope he has settled into NZ OK and that at least one rugby country will fit with him to help his development, which, if so, he should surely continue for a few years, and then that he can experience France to it’s fullest with a bit more maturity and less reliance on family than you would have at his current age. A good 3 or 4 years before he would be ready for International duty if he wanted to wait. Of course he already sounds good enough to accept a call up, and to cap himself, in the more immediate future (he’d have to be very very good in the case of the ABs), and he’ll get a great taste of that being with the Canes who have a bunch who are just a few years further into their career and looking likely Internationals themselves.
14 Go to comments