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Rugby star Quade Cooper wins third professional fight with brutal stoppage

Quade Cooper takes charge in the ring

Rugby union star Quade Cooper made it three wins from as many professional fights with a second-round stoppage of Jack McInnes on Friday.

The Australia fly-half had spoken about how fear of a humiliating loss had been fuelling his desire as he once again prepared to swap to the rugby pitch for the boxing ring.

However, there was never any danger of that happening as McInnes – who had been roundly ridiculed on social media before the cruiserweight bout after photos appeared of him looking out of shape – was floored in the second.

Cooper, who was roundly booed before and after the fight, went through the motions in the first round as, to his credit, McInnes absorbed plenty of punishment to make it to the bell.

But in the second, Cooper quickly had McInnes against the ropes and one particularly fierce blow brought his opponent to his knees and an end to the contest.

The Reds back – who was given a good luck message from IBF world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua – was fighting on the undercard of the eagerly awaited rematch between bitter rivals Anthony Mundine and Danny Green.

 

Made my day much love to the champ @anthony_joshua

A video posted by Quade Cooper (@quadecooper) on Feb 3, 2017 at 2:22am PST

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Nickers 29 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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