Wallabies defend their 'weakest link'
Former All Black coach Graham Henry has ruffled a few feathers with his autobiography The Final Word.
Not only has his match-fixing claims caused a stir around the globe, but now he has earned the ire of Australians with the suggestion that Quade Cooper is in fact their weakest link.
Cooper's Wallaby teammates reacted with indignation to the suggestion, made by Henry, Cooper was the team's "glaring weakness" at last year's World Cup.
"Quade Cooper was plainly the weakest link," Henry claimed in his book.
"Coach Robbie Deans had taken him out of the front line … because he was a suspect tackler. He doesn't lack heart but defending is not his area of strength."
The former All Black mentor suggested that by dropping Cooper back, the Wallaby coaches weakened Australia's back three in both a positional sense and for kicks in the air.
However, Cooper's teammates responded in kind and blasted Henry – much like almost the entire world did when he made startling match-fixing claims during the first batch of excerpts from his book.
Wing Drew Mitchell said the flyhalf had proven himself to his teammates and that was all that mattered.
"They're the ones you want to convince, and when times get tough you want to make sure the bloke you're playing next to knows you can do the job," he said.
Mitchell added that players weren't motivated to get the blessing of an opposition coach.
Fullback Adam Ashley-Cooper said Cooper was a player with great ability.
"Playing with him is always exciting. There's a lot of unpredictability around his game," Ashley-Cooper said.
The New Zealand-born Cooper had a difficult run in 2011, where he bore the brunt of Kiwi hostility at the World Cup.
Henry led the All Blacks to win the world crown, and his book's release coincides with Cooper's return to the Wallabies after suffering a season-ending knee injury during the third-place play-off and other complications along the way.
Wallabies Coach Robbie Deans was unimpressed with Henry's attack.
"I haven't read his book," he said.
"Quade's in the squad, he's returning to the game, he's working hard at that. He's a bloke that's played fairly in the past and he will in the future."
And it seems the squad's refusal to take Henry's bait has trickled down to the man in question himself.
Last night Cooper tweeted to over 600,000 followers: "Determination to succeed against all the odds = attitude."
Source: AAP
