Quade Cooper to play for the Wallabies for the first time in four years

Quade Cooper will complete a stunning return to the Wallabies fold this weekend when he plays his first Test since 2017.

The 33-year-old former Queensland Reds and Melbourne Rebels flyhalf will start in Australia’s No.10 jersey against South Africa in Sunday night’s Rugby Championship clash on the Gold Coast, displacing Brumbies young gun Noah Lolesio.

Cooper had been recalled to the extended Wallabies squad for the recent Bledisloe Cup series against New Zealand, but wasn’t used in any of the three Tests, all won by the All Blacks.

However, Australia’s poor form has led to Wallabies coach Dave Rennie giving an opportunity to the flamboyant Cooper, who played the most recent of his 70 Tests four years ago against Italy.

Cooper has spent the past two years playing for Japanese club Kintetsu Liners, but having made more the 60 appearances for the Wallabies, can still be selected for Australia via the “Giteau Law”.

Cooper’s selection will delight Wallabies great Lote Tuqiri, who on Thursday called for him to be chosen ahead of 21-year-old Lolesio.

“I’ve always liked Quade Cooper,” Tuqiri said.

“He’s in the squad, he’s been in and around that time for a while … I’m not saying Noah Lolesio is not the option, (but) Noah probably needs a bit of a rest at the moment.

“He’s only a young guy. Feeling that constant pressure each week can get a bit tough.

“He’s only young in his Wallabies career, so give him a week or two off and let Quade take some of these games.

“He can help take the pressure off (Lolesio) and then Noah can come take over probably for the last couple of games – that’s what I’d do.”

Tuqiri’s former Wallabies teammate Mat Rogers described Cooper as a “freak”.

“Quade is just an out and out star of the game,” Rogers said.

“Are his best days behind him or ahead of him? Who knows, but he needs an opportunity to see that.”

Rogers’ only concern with choosing Cooper was his belief that the Wallabies should be “fostering combinations”.

“I’d just like to see more clean ball out to guys like Jordan Petaia and to see him with some open space,” Rogers said.

“The more things you change inside him, the more work you’ve got to do on those combinations to try to get him the ball.

“He’s playing with new players every week, and it’s hard for him to understand where to put himself to get those balls and to give him the opportunities that we need guys like him to have with the ball in his hands.”

Rogers said the Wallabies needed to “cherish the ball” to turn around their form.

“We’re playing a little bit more expansively, but we’re turning the ball over a little bit too much and it’s costing us.

“That’s for the coach to decide whether they persist with that expansive style of game, or they go a little more structured, and maybe score less points but focus on their defence and limit (the opposition) to less points.

“We got some enormous talent in the team. When you’ve got such a large squad, it’s easy to think ‘we need to take that guy and put this guy in’, but teams within the team are really important.

“We’ve got to going to really start to foster those combinations and persist when things aren’t going quite as well as what we’d like.

“The team’s doing well but obviously not well enough. They’re not winning as many games as they want, but there’s a bright future ahead.”