Cooper seeks wise heads

Colin Cooper sounded reluctant to let go of Week One.

The Chiefs coach is preparing his side to meet the Brumbies in Canberra on Saturday and had some good news yesterday when key playmaker Damian Mckenzie came through training well.

The All Black utility missed last Friday night’s home defeat to the Highlanders with an ankle injury and Cooper will welcome him back to a side the coach felt lacked leadership and decisionmaking nous.

Although the Chiefs led until late with rookie first-five Orbyn Leger – and then veteran Stephen Donald – standing in for Mckenzie, they were outplayed late by a 14-man visiting side. Cooper remains annoyed. ‘‘We had five points in the bag really and let it slip away, which is really disappointing,’’ he said.

‘‘A matter of fatigue and decision-making, leadership. We lacked those three things in the last 20 minutes. We made a lot of mistakes at the start, we toughed it out, kept them out, we had a pretty good middle but at the end we weren’t good enough. We should have won that game.’’

The sought-for solution this week is more ‘live’ training sessions.

‘‘Every time we do live training I’ve got my fingers crossed re injury but there is no other way,’’ Cooper said.

‘‘How you make decisions under fatigue is at training and under pressure. If you just wait for the game, it’s too late.’’

Mckenzie’s ‘slight ankle strain’ has healed well and he’s poised to be named at first-five to tackle the Brumbies.

Cooper also hopes to have have fullback Shaun Stevenson available but prop Atu Moli will be sidelined for a month with an elbow injury.