Cooper’s a happy camper
If Chiefs coach Colin Cooper is unhappy with the prospect of losing his best players to All Blacks camps during the Super Rugby season he is keeping those grumbles behind closed doors.
‘‘There are no issues,’’ Cooper said yesterday. ‘‘It is what it is. You just have to make sure you plan thoroughly and if there are All Blacks missing . . . getting a good heads-up of when that is happening so that you can plan.’’
Details about the camps have still not been made public, with Cooper playing a straight bat to questions yesterday, but Hurricanes coach Chris Boyd has already raised concerns about the camps after the Hurricanes’ preseason hitout against the Crusaders in Greymouth.
Those comments made on the heels of Boyd’s admission that he had not spoken to All Blacks coach Steve Hansen in three years, but former NZ Maori coach Cooper, who has also co-coached the Junior All Blacks with current All Blacks assistant Ian Foster, said he was happy with the level of communication between the franchise and the national setup.
‘‘I’ve got a good relationship obviously with the Maori and a lot of good connections with the All Blacks camp,’’ Cooper said. ‘‘There a lot of comms [communication] between the All Blacks and the Chiefs now.’’
That relationship was on show yesterday with All Blacks forwards mentor Mike Cron at Chiefs training, putting the forwards through scrum drills.
It is understood Cron and Foster will sit down with the Chiefs’ All Blacks to deliver a review of their 2017 and work-ons for this year.
The Chiefs will now depart for Brisbane to defend their Brisbane 10s title, which Cooper said would be useful in gauging the players’ conditioning and skill levels.
However, the serious stuff begins next week when the All Blacks rejoin the squad to prepare for a final pre-season game against the Brumbies on the Sunshine Coast on Wednesday week.
Although the Chiefs suffered a heavy loss to the Blues in Te Kuiti last weekend, Cooper wasn’t reading too much into that with his focus on the Chiefs’ Super Rugby opener against the Crusaders in Christchurch on February 24.
To that end, halfback Brad Weber has not been included in the 10s squad and looks set for a big role at the Chiefs this season.