Writing in The Age, Spiro Zavos insists it's time for star No.10 Quade Cooper to tackle nagging issue and commit to the Australian rugby union cause.
"It used to be called the Jonah Lomu ploy. Now it has become the Quade Cooper ploy. Rugby league clubs having a bad trot would announce that they were negotiating with Lomu to play for them. Season ticket sales would pick up, allowing the embattled chief executive to survive for another season. To his credit, Lomu would vigorously deny any interest in switching codes, a reaction that eventually killed off further stunts. For the past few days I have been waiting for Cooper to do the same thing about the offer from Parramatta.
"It's all very well blaming managers for setting up a bidding war between the codes. Cooper has been the recipient of a huge monetary investment from the ARU. With a World Cup coming up, he owes rugby an unequivocal statement that his loyalty to the Wallabies jersey is set in concrete for next season. There has been a great deal of talk about how Cooper's passing game would glitter on a rugby league field as it has for the Reds and the Wallabies this season. And this is right. But league, essentially, is a tackling game. The player with one of the worst tackling records in the Super 14 this season was … Quade Cooper."
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