All business for Cooper, says Genia
RUGBY UNION: Quade Cooper hasn’t even mentioned it, at least not to his long-time on-field cohort Will Genia.
On Saturday night Cooper, the former Wallaby star who was shunned by the Queensland Reds last season and sent to club rugby by coach Brad Thorn, will return to haunt his old team.
Cooper played for only one Super Rugby team before he signed with the Melbourne Rebels this season and set about reasserting his dominance on the competition.
Between 2006 and 2017, Cooper played 118 games for the Reds. He won the title with Genia for the Reds in 2011. But former All-Black Thorn deemed Cooper surplus to needs.
It was the sort of situation to give most players, most people even, a snarl. Cooper, however, has thrown no animosity the Reds way, at least publicly, since he was allowed out of the final year of his six-figure contract to sign with Melbourne.
Genia, who has been partner in crime with Cooper since they were teenagers, at the Reds, for the Wallabies, and now in Melbourne, said his mate was all business this week.
“If it is something (he’s thinking about), I haven’t noticed it,” Genia said yesterday.
“He’s brought the same intensity, same work ethic, the same quality he has brought each and every week.
“He didn’t leave on bad terms with the Queensland public and the Reds fans. His focus hasn’t been on what it’s going to be like (going back), and personal battles. It’s a case of him doing a job for our team to make sure we bounce back positively from South Africa.”
The trip to South Africa yielded two losses for the Rebels, first to the Lions, in a heartbreaker, and then to the Sharks.