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Watch: Quade Cooper rips up club rugby yet again

Quade Cooper returned from a minor knee injury to again illustrate what the struggling Queensland Reds are missing.

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The mercurial outhalf was simply outstanding playing for Brisbane club side Souths against the Wests, helping them to a 38-31 victory.

He  scored two tries and set up three others, including one simply outstanding offload.

The Reds are second from bottom in the Super Rugby standings and have won just four of their fourteen matches so far.

Reds head coach Brad Thorn has banished Cooper from the set-up. In May he said that the 30-year-old, who is contracted to the Reds until the end of 2019, was welcome to move.

“If there was an opportunity for Quade at another Super Rugby club, we wouldn’t stand in his way”, Thorn said.

Continue reading below…

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The Reds and the Wallabies were recently dealt a severe injury blow with the news that their Australia centre Samu Kerevi will miss the entire Rugby Championship after undergoing surgery to repair a torn biceps.

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Kerevi is expected to be out for between three and four months, reportedly doing the damage during the Wallabies’ Test series defeat to Ireland last month.

The 24-year-old went for scans on Sunday after he was in discomfort during the Reds’ Super Rugby loss to the Blues last Friday.

Kerevi went under the knife on Monday and will not play again this season as he sets out on the road to recovery.

The loss of the powerful Kerevi is a blow to the Reds, who are already without Chris Feauai-Sautia and Izaia Perese for the remainder of the campaign.

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Nickers 38 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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