Quade Cooper

   Injuries and his own attitude have prevented Quade Cooper from developing into the rugby legend he could have been. The Gen Y swagger and opinion of himself and others is not so new but team culture and respect for senior players and understanding of the overall endeavour have reeled in always present egos in the past.
   Even David Campese understood that at the end of the day it's a team sport. Campo had his non existent tackling technique to keep him humble, Cooper just shifts to fullback!!
   Schoolboy heroes need some hard yards in senior rugby to learn to use their gifts and skills against similarly gifted players or on the whole better teams because the opposition play together.
   I think the same has been true for Kurtley Beale who won everything at St Josephs and must have found it hard in the early stages at the Waratahs. Only now after the stint at fullback is he causing sufficient buzz with the Wallabies that they could afford to only offer Cooper an incentive deal [unthinkable 18 months ago]!! Michael Hawker is obviously enjoying the post John O'Neill perspective...
   I hope Quade Cooper gets his head sorted and actually signs the contract. He will not be a hit in rugby league... French rugby maybe or Japan!! On the other hand he could knuckle down and learn a thing or two from coaches and use his expansive game and once in a generation ability to threaten defences and grow as a player.
   Blokes his age do go out drinking, bingle cars, even steal the occasional laptop as a joke... most of them don't get to lay rugby for Australia though... don't be an idiot!!
I've no doubt the Wallaby game plans frustrated him as coach Deans had to decide that the team was clearly incapable of playing with flair so adapted match plans to suit our inability to catch pass and kick [effectively] we have no trouble kicking... we just do it too often and get the same lame results.
Take the game v England on the weekend. The early kicks were better', the short up and unders were used to turn the defence around but then later they kept kicking to nobody and brought England back into the game by giving them the ball...
   If it were up to me I'd pick Cooper at Inside Centre with Beale at 5/8th and Berrick Barnes at Fullback. This is the challenge schoolboy coaches had with Cooper and Beale and could use the best skills of both...
Anyhow, Quade, good luck to you whatever you choose to do!!