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One reason why Quade Cooper will be missed
- Wayne Smith
- From: The Australian
- July 26, 2010 12:00AM
LET me count the reasons why Quade Cooper will be sorely missed in the Bledisloe Cup Test against the All Blacks in Melbourne on Saturday.
One. OK, that's it.
Just one. That is the number of times the Wallabies five-eighth kicked the ball during the 70 minutes he was on the field against the Springboks during the Brisbane Test on Saturday night. One, the loneliest number, the integer that comes before two and after zero. One, the only number that is its own square, its own cube, its own whatever other power you care to take it to.
It is hard to be prescriptive about these things but it is a safe bet that between March 27, 1871 - the date of the first rugby international ever played, between England and Scotland in Edinburgh - and July 24, 2010, no other five-eighth has ever kicked the ball less in a Test than did Cooper at Suncorp Stadium against the Boks.
There was a lot of that going on in the Wallabies, not kicking, that is. Adam Ashley-Cooper didn't kick it once. Who has ever heard of that, a Test fullback not putting boot to ball on a single occasion?
And it wasn't as though the other two members of the back three were hoofing it madly to make up for him. Drew Mitchell didn't kick once either while James O'Connor only put in two, and let's politely pretend that the panicky left-footed one didn't happen.
In all, there were only 11 kicks from the Wallabies on the night, which might well be another record Test low, along with the match aggregate of 27 because the Springboks, improbably and ultimately unsuccessfully, abandoned what they do best and only booted the ball 16 times. How South Africa must yearn for a return to the bad old days of 2009 when there was real reward for a game plan of aerial bombardment and rush defence.
Given that there were only 40 kicks during the recent Eden Park Test (All Blacks 21, Boks 19) and 43 in Wellington (All Blacks 214, Boks 19), it is fair to ask whether we are witnessing the beginning of a new trend in international rugby or whether the All Blacks and Wallabies have simply identified that the easiest way to defeat the South Africans is to keep ball in hand and starve their lineout.
Both perhaps. Certainly the amount of kicking in rugby has fallen dramatically over the decades. The 1973 clash between the Barbarians and All Blacks still rates at or near the top of any list of "most exciting rugby matches ever played" yet all those end-to-end sweeping movements were punctuated by nearly 100 kicks.
During the 1980s, the average fell to around 80 per Test, 18 more than the Six Nations average earlier this year, while the Tri-Nations kicking stats over the past four years have fluctuated from 58 in 2006 to 67 in 2008, before plunging to this year's low of 33.
Logic would suggest that a new low could be achieved at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night when the Wallabies and All Blacks go head-to-head.
It will mostly be Cooper's absence that will drive the kicking stats and the ball skywards. There is no other player in world rugby quite like him, no other player capable of taking the ball to or through the line and still unload a freakish pass under pressure.
Whoever Robbie Deans selects in his place at five-eighth, be it Berrick Barnes or Matt Giteau, will kick more frequently because that is simply what they do.
Unless, of course, the selectors think outside the square and thrust O'Connor into the playmaking role on the basis of the fact that of all the players in the Super 14, he played the most like Cooper. No, methinks not. Too risky. O'Connor might not have the passing game for the job and besides, on the evidence of Saturday, he may finally have found his niche on the wing as the Shane Williams of Australian rugby.
That being the case, how are the Wallabies to beat the All Blacks in Melbourne? The average scoreline in Bledisloe Cup Tests during the professional era is 25-19 in favour of New Zealand, so where are Australia's 26 points to come from? Even with Giteau back in solid goalkicking form, it's asking an awful lot of him and South African referee Craig Joubert to think they can do it on penalties alone.
That means the Wallabies will need to be inventive in how they cover the loss of their most creative player. And they will need to become a whole lot more precise as well, because they arguably left two or three unscored tries out there on Saturday night. Whatever tactics they employ, they will have to implement them without their X-Factor. Because how many Quade Coopers are there?
You guessed it . . . one.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225896767354
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