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Pivotal clash postponed
By Wayne Smith and Peter Kogoy, The Australian
April 11, 2007
A FEW short weeks ago, Australian rugby was salivating at the thought of teenage whiz kids Kurtley Beale and Quade Cooper going head-to-head in the Super 14 match between New South Wales and Queensland.
But neither now seems likely to start the match at Aussie Stadium on Saturday night.
Beale, 18, has been freshened up as a bench player for the Waratahs in the past two matches, and he is expected to remain in that role.
Cooper, 19 last week, is meanwhile likely to be relieved of the starting duties at five-eighth, instead being used off the bench the bench after showing signs of feeling the pressure in Queensland's past two losses, against the Chiefs and Sharks.
Andrew Brown is set to start at inside centre for the Reds for the first time since the season-opener against the Hurricanes, having finally fully recovered from a rib injury, while Berrick Barnes is likely to swap from inside centre to five-eighth.
"We'll no doubt be considering that," Reds coach Eddie Jones, who will name his side today, said.
"It might be that (Cooper and Beale) are throwing paper planes at each other on the sideline at the start of the game."
Certainly the two gifted playmakers are still young enough for such frivolity, which also explains why they have had their share of problems adjusting to professional rugby straight out of school.
With their sides in freefall to the bottom of the Super 14 ladder, both prodigies have been pushed into decision-making roles far earlier than Jones or Waratahs coach Ewen McKenzie would have preferred.
"We'd have liked a longer road," McKenzie said yesterday.
"But hopefully these two will play against each other for the next 10 years.
"It's a great head-to-head thing and it's fantastic to have such talent coming on the scene at the same time.
"We've been talking about Steve Larkham's replacement for a while and now we have these two young, interesting guys arriving together.
"At the same time, I hope it doesn't end up like the back row, the George Smith-Phil Waugh-David Croft sort of thing, where you have good players missing out."
With Reds veteran Ben Tune now just four matches away from retirement, Jones is searching for an experienced player to help to steer Cooper and Barnes around the park. He is thinking of recruiting Waratahs centre Morgan Turinui.
"I'd like to have a chat to Morgan but I thought I'd leave it until after the interstate match," Jones said.
"But maybe I could present him with a Reds jersey just before he runs on this weekend."
Just when it seemed the bleak circumstances surrounding this match might rob the derby of the spite built up over 125 years, along came Lote Tuqiri yesterday to call on his Waratahs teammates to get ruthless against the Reds.
While Tuqiri conceded the match between the 13th and 14th ranked teams in the competition could easily be billed as a battle for the wooden spoon, he was still predicting a tough game.
"They always are," Tuqiri said.
"We're expecting the Reds to be quite physical and we'll train accordingly this week.
"Blokes like (former Queensland halfback) Josh Valentine will tell you the Reds hate us and we hate them right back. There's no love lost and it's going to be quite a physical encounter."
When pressed about the Waratahs' fall from grace, Tuqiri said: "Attitude has got a lot to do with it. We've got the game plan but we're just not implementing it at different times on the field.
"We're letting ourselves down in the basics, catching and passing and one-on-one tackles."
And in a frank admission Tuqiri labelled his season as "less than average".
"I think everyone, bar one or two blokes, can say the same," Tuqiri said.
"While we won our first game of the season (against the Lions in Johannesburg), we've been pretty ordinary ever since."
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Originally Posted by Shaun
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!! 
) he is a stronger runner of the ball and hits the gap running, unlike Beale who tends to try and twinkle toe his way through a half gap or just chips. Cooper is also better when is comes to the passing game, his passes are crisp while Beale's are sometimes floaters who sell his man.
