Crazy antics by Cooper mean Wallabies won't be a threat for four more years

Wobbly Wallabies Quade Cooper (left) and Matt Giteau were on the winning side this time but Cooper will lose more games than he wins if he remains at pivot. Photo / Getty Images

Go on Michael Cheika. Dare you. Keep picking Quade Cooper as the Wallabies' World Cup lynchpin.

Cooper is as crazy as ever and will lose more games than he wins for the Wallabies.

Coach Cheika is playing with fire in World Cup year, relying on the nutty No10 to guide the ship.

The gripping last-gasp-try win over South Africa at Brisbane was a terrific fillip for Australian rugby, which in turn is excellent news for the game in this part of the world. But here goes with the old line that gets dragged out every four years: The Wallabies Won't Win the World Cup. Not a chance.

They were getting cleaned up big time by the Springboks, but injuries and substitutions that would be regarded as weird in a truly big game threw the Springboks into disarray.

Coach Heyneke Meyer, mindful of the big World Cup picture, let the Aussies back into the game. But don't be fooled by the scoreboard, and even Australia's goalkicking is struggling for accuracy and range.

Most of Australia's best performers came off the bench. James Horwill, David Pocock, Nick Phipps and Matt Toomua either outplayed or looked better prospects than Will Skelton, Scott Higginbotham, Will Genia and Matt Giteau. An imploding Aussie scrum suddenly went gangbusters, but only after the substitutions.

The dilemma for Cheika's Australia - who face England and Wales in their World Cup pool - is that Cooper is the key to spreading the ball against big opponents and he throws a decent long pass on the run.

But ... Cooper still doesn't have a head for tests. Even an easy kick at goal went so wide it was actually funny. For every rabbit Cooper can pull out of a hat - he helped create a try to Adam Ashley-Cooper - there's a truck load of missing bunnies.

Cooper has been around long enough to delete the nonsense out of his game, know how to work the percentages even if they are a bit different from the rest. Instead, he is still capable of whacky plays that get his team into unimaginable trouble. The Cooper Classic Moment this time came on the halftime hooter, when he flung a pass behind his own back to no one inside his 22. Desperate Wallabies defence saved the day but had the Springboks profited from Cooper's brain snap, test over.

It's hard to work out how Australia won this game, or maybe how the Springboks managed to throw it away. Veteran loose forward Schalk Burger was immense as the Boks dominated Australia. Even the visitors' backs showed a creative sharpness banned from South African rugby for a century or so.

Pocock got it bang-on though. The Aussies must review this game as if they lost and there's an easy way for Cheika to do that, by imagining the loopy Cooper pass led to a Springboks try.

There are reports that Cooper is about to re-sign with the ARU until 2019. If so, we get the last laugh on the famous George Gregan line. Four More Years, Australia.