Australia puts finishing touches on their roster
The Australian Wallabies and Coach Robbie Deans have put the finishing touches on their roster for their upcoming match against the South African Springboks in the Tri Nations Cup. The most significant move made by Deans this week was bringing back all-star Quade Cooper at the fly-half position.
The Aussies are coming off a loss to the New Zealand All Blacks three weeks ago and have been itching to get back on the pitch. The game, to be hosted in Pretoria, will be the second meeting between the Wallabies and the Springboks in this year’s tournament, after the Wallabies downed the Boks in Brisbane over a month ago.
Cooper has been the subject to rumours saying he could leave Union Rugby for Australia’s National Rugby League, after being offer a ‘massive’ contract from NRL side the Parramatta Eels. Cooper has said that he is considering the offer, in which case he could join the NRL at the beginning of next season. Nevertheless, Deans has chosen to include the youngster in the roster for the weekend.
Cooper maintains that the current situation will not distract him during the game stating, “In terms of it distracting me, no. I’m looking forward to the game. Rugby is what I do, I’ve done it since I was four or five years old. It’s easy to block out any distraction once you are out on the field. You run out with a job to do.”
Cooper will take the place of Matt Giteau at fly-half sending Giteau to the inside centre position. The change will drop Anthony Faingaa to the bench. In addition, the Wallabies bench will also welcome Scott Hingginbotham and Ben McCalman who are taking the places of the injured Matt Hodgson and Rob Simmons respectively, Rocky Elsom is still slotted to captain the team.
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