Cooper the Wallaby

Tokoroa-born Quade Cooper, who recently played his first Test as a Wallaby, knows rugby’s brutal side says Greg Growden of the Brisbane Times, and growing up in the North Island timber town, it was inevitable the national game would grab him early. He was just four when he played his first game. “It was bare feet back in those days with the Tokoroa Pirates, with our games starting about 7am,” Cooper said. “It was just a case of chasing the ball, and if I got it, running round and round in circles. I was first a bit nervous about playing because I didn’t know anyone. So my mum would tell me, as an incentive, that she’d give me some bubble gum after the game. That turned the tide. I kept playing after that. Bubble gum was a big lure.” Of his choice to play for the Australians: “It was a massive call to stay with Australia because every New Zealand kid’s dream is to play for the All Blacks. Becoming a Wallaby rather than an All Black is certainly a decision I’ve never regretted.”