Quade Cooper and Matthew Giteau of the Wallabies talk during The Rugby Championship match between the Australian Wallabies and the South Africa Springboks. Photo / AP.
Quade Cooper and Matthew Giteau of the Wallabies talk during The Rugby Championship match between the Australian Wallabies and the South Africa Springboks. Photo / AP.
Stephen Larkham, one of the finest No. 10s in rugby history, has gone on to the attack in an effort to defend Quade Cooper's recent display at Eden Park.
Since Larkham is the Wallabies' attack coach for the World Cup, this is hardly a surprise. But he put up aspirited defence of the controversial pivot.
Larkham told The Australian the Wallabies dominated the first 25 minutes against the All Blacks, and Cooper had been highly influential in that. Cooper made just two mistakes in the game, he said.
"He threw one pass around the back and he made that head-high tackle (on Aaron Smith)," Larkham said.
"Throughout the rest of the game we didn't have a lot of ball. He was very clear with the boys out on the field and his skills were where they needed to be.
"Getting him back in the squad and having a bit of time to work with him, he responds really well to that."
However, the report questioned Larkham's view of Cooper's mistake rate, noting he had "dropped high balls, failed to take the ball to the line, and made several misreads in defence" in the crushing 13 - 41 defeat.
It also speculated that Nick Phipps and Bernard Foley were the preferred halves combination, with Will Genia and Cooper the backups.
Larkham claimed the heavy loss in Auckland had not dented Australia's confidence but admitted: "We were disappointed and somewhat embarrassed about the way we lost the game."
The Wallabies have a final warm up game against the United States in Chicago next week.
