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Playmaker to haymakers: Australia's Cooper relishing boxing return

The fear of suffering a humiliating knockout will fuel Quade Cooper when the Australia fly-half attempts to maintain his perfect professional boxing record on Friday.

Cooper has won both his fights in the professional ranks and will aim to make it three out of three when he goes toe-to-toe with Jack McInnes in a cruiserweight bout on the undercard to the rematch between Anthony Mundine and Danny Green.

The 28-year-old playmaker said his training regime and the bout at Adelaide Oval should stand him in good stead when he makes his Reds return this month.

“Every time I get in the ring, for my own personal growth it’s been great,” the former Toulon man told rugby.com.au.

“You get a lot of confidence out of stepping into that ring, overcoming that fear.

“There’s a natural fear every time you step into the ring, where you could possibly get knocked out, you could possibly get humiliated in front of a massive audience.

“So it’s one of those things I train very hard for and I’m very passionate about.”

Cooper added: “Having the opportunity to box once a year during my rugby career has been great but it’s one of those things you get addicted to.

“My focus is on rugby for a fair few more years now but when the time comes if I get the opportunity and continue to improve and grow as a boxer in the short amount of time I get to box I’d love to continue it on.

“It’s great for your body and great for your mind.”

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Nickers 24 minutes ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

I thought we made a lot of progress against that type of defence by the WC last year. Lots of direct running and punching holes rather than using width. Against that type of defence I think you have to be looking to kick on first phase when you have front foot ball which we did relatively successfully. We are playing a lot of rugby behind the gain line at the moment. They are looking for those little interchanges for soft shoulders and fast ball or off loads but it regularly turns into them battering away with slow ball and going backwards, then putting in a very rushed kick under huge pressure.


JB brought that dimension when he first moved into 12 a couple of years ago but he's definitely not been at his best this year. I don't know if it is because he is being asked to play a narrow role, or carrying a niggle or two, but he does not look confident to me. He had that clean break on the weekend and stood there like he was a prop who found himself in open space and didn't know what to do with the ball. He is still a good first phase ball carrier though, they use him a lot off the line out to set up fast clean ball, but I don't think anyone is particularly clear on what they are supposed to do at that point. He was used really successfully as a second playmaker last year but I don't think he's been at that role once this year. He is a triple threat player but playing a very 1 dimensional role at the moment. He and Reiko have been absolutely rock solid on defence which is why I don't think there will be too much experimentation or changes there.

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