Quade Cooper is looking to add a professional fight into his seven-month rehab as he works to return from a ruptured Achilles’ tendon in time for the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Cooper was on hand in Sydney yesterday as his good mate Sonny Bill Williams announced he would fight Mark Hunt on November 5.
Cooper has had three professional fights, the first on a SBW undercard in 2013. While he isn’t a chance for the night of the Hunt bout, the 34-year-old said he hoped to be fighting on the next one.
“I would have loved to be on this card, but obviously it’s not meant to be with the injury,” Cooper told us.
“But I am sure after this fight he will have another fight not too long after it, and it may work well with the recovery process. I will definitely be doing a lot of boxing as part of the rehab process coming back from an Achilles, just to get that bounce back. I know that’s going to play a big part with the skipping and stuff like that. It will be a conversation to be had with the powers that be over the next few months.”
Quade Cooper playing for the Wallabies in 2021, and boxing in 2015.Credit:Getty
Cooper is aiming to be back on the field in Japan in March.
Cross code war shifts from Joseph to Jorgo
You know all about the fight for Joseph Suaalii, but there is another lower profile – but no less intense – code war going on between rugby and the Roosters for another in-demand teenage talent, Max Jorgensen.
The son of former Wallaby, Roosters and Panthers speedster Peter Jorgensen, Max is in year 12 at Joeys and has played both league and union. Max has starred fullback for the NSW under 18s for the last two years and was even picked in the 2022 Junior Wallabies squad (under 20s) as well.
Peter Jorgensen playing for Penrith in 2000. Credit:Craig Golding
The 18-year-old has been personally wooed by Roosters coach Trent Robinson and Waratahs coach Darren Coleman, and Rugby Australia have even been involved. We hear rugby types are confident. Stay tuned.
Main channel for midweek Bledisloe
Channel Nine will broadcast the first Bledisloe Cup clash in Melbourne next Thursday on the main channel, in every state, going some way to justifying the shift to a mid-week fixture. The Thursday clash will be the first midweek Bledisloe Cup game since the Gregan tackle game in 1994.
George Gregan making THAT tackle on Jeff Wilson in 1994.Credit:Rugby Australia
The re-ordering of the Rugby Championships this year, which saw the Wallabies playing against the All Blacks in late September instead of early August, threw up clashes with AFL and NRL finals. Rugby Australia agreed with a suggestion to move the game to clear air on the Thursday in Melbourne, to not compete with AFL finals. It will also avoid clashes with the NRL finals on Nine, and a shift to a digital channel.
That sort of clash didn’t help last weekend when the Wallabies-Springboks drew 60,000 fewer viewers on FTA than the previous week’s afternoon clash in Adelaide. And way less than the third Test against England in July, when it was the highest non-news show on FTA for the day with a five-cities tally of 445,000.
The two ratings results from the Springboks series may lead to more afternoon games, however. A bullish Rugby Australia knocked back the option of another afternoon start in Sydney and chose the congested night slot.
Four into ten won’t go
Waratahs coach Darren Coleman concedes one or more of his five-eighths will move on at the end of next season after the Tahs added Jack Bowen, a fourth No.10, to the main squad on Thursday.
Bowen, 19, is the son of former Wallabies No.10 Scott Bowen and has impressed for Easts in the Shute Shield this season, in his first year out of school. The Junior Wallabies five-eighth was signed on a long-term deal by NSW Rugby in 2021 and his graduation from the NSW Academy is part of the deal’s structure.
Jack Bowen clearing the ball for Easts.Credit:Karen Watson
But the rise of Tane Edmed last year, along with Will Harrison and Ben Donaldson, means the Waratahs have No.10s falling out of their pockets. Waratahs coach Darren Coleman said Bowen’s time with the Tahs in 2023 will have a development focus.
“Jack is a talented young player and had a great back half of the Shute Shield and 20s series, and I am really confident he’ll be a Super Rugby player, but this year will be more about learning from the others and learning how to be a professional. He is only 19,” Coleman said.
Harrison and Donaldson are the two off contract at the end of next season.
Beers after brawls
The footage of Allan Alaalatoa sharing a beer with Eben Etzebeth after their showdown in Sydney went viral this week and was lauded as a great example of the leave-it-on-the-field spirit of rugby. But given it was so well captured, some cynics viewed it as contrived for the camera.
It wasn’t. The shot was the work of Wallabies videographer Andrew Phan. Shooting in the sheds post-game, Phan told us when Etzebeth popped into the Wallabies rooms with his teammates, he kept half an eye on Ala’alatoa, knowing the prop would look to shake hands “because that’s the type of bloke he is”. Allan moved towards the fridge and the rest is history.
Mental health first aid
Ahead of RUOK day, Waratahs players and staff took part in a new initiative this week when they attended the first day of a two-day workshop focused on mental health “first aid”.
Waratahs players and staff attending a mental health first aid course.Credit:Toby Sinclair/NSW Rugby
Run by RUPA’s player development officer at NSW, Charlotte Annaveld, the players and staff are being educated on the spectrum of mental health issues and disorders, and the myriad signs and symptoms. The idea of the “first aid” course is to help players and staff to identify someone who is struggling, to “triage” and help if possible and potentially assist in seeking further assistance.
In today’s pressurised sporting world, where more and more players are admitting mental health struggles, the program is another important step. RUPA and Rugby Australia are looking to roll the course out nationally.
‘Tree’ spreads his roots
West Harbour have recruited a respected coaching figure from the northern beaches after finishing second last in the Shute Shield. They’ve brought in former Waratah and Queensland lock Cameron Treloar from Warringah, where has been impressing as a coach since winning the 2017 Shute Shield.
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