Quade Cooper has the chance to earn a recall to the test side
with a match winning performance over the Lions tonight

by Paul Cook in Brisbane –

There was a glint in the eye of Queensland Reds coach Ewen McKenzie in yesterday’s final press conference before tonight’s clash against the British & Irish Lions at Suncorp Stadium. The former Wallaby prop has made his intentions clear from the off regarding the fixture, he is a respecter of history and tradition and sees this game against the tourists for the landmark opportunity that it presents, not only for Queensland but for his resume as well.

“I look for the one-off opportunities where you can do something that other people haven’t,” he said. “When you look at the Lions and the fact that they’re only here every 12 years, there’s a fantastic piece of history there that can be grabbed and not many people have done it. You don’t have to look very far back in history to see that there’s not many teams outside of test teams that beat the Lions so you put yourself in pretty unique company if you can engineer a result.”

Reds coach Ewen McKenzie sees this game as a chance to ‘make history’ – Photo: seiserphotography.com.au

The Reds have named their strongest team possible and even with seven of their stars now ensconced in the Wallaby camp preparing for the test series, it is a team the Lions should pay all due care and attention to. Twelve of the matchday 23 have featured for the national side in recent times and form part of a squad that has evolved a strong and positive mentality under McKenzie. They are not here to simply make up the numbers.

“I haven’t been involved with Queensland once where we’ve actually gone out there to mitigate the score or come second,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean we don’t come second [sometimes] but the mentality of not trying to win the game doesn’t exist with us. The bigger the crowd and the bigger the opponent, we’ve done better. The excitement of sport is about things that aren’t meant to happen…we’re excited by the prospect of maybe proving a few people wrong.”

The highest profile player in the squad is Wallaby exile Quade Cooper. Respected almost en masse by the travelling band of journalists following the Lions’ every move, his predicted absence from the test side is seen as a positive boon for the hopes of the tourists. If he sees this game as a chance to send out a very clear message to Wallaby coach Robbie Deans, he’s playing it down nicely.

“I’m just excited to have the opportunity to play against the Lions, not many players get that opportunity at all. It’s the first outing against them in Queensland for a long time and I’m very excited about it and I know my team mates and the Queensland public are as well.”

“You don’t want to get too far ahead of yourself and concentrate on things that may or may not happen,” he insisted “for me, it’s all about doing what I can for the team that I’m involved in. If you’re thinking about things other than the game, it can’t be that important but for me, this is very important – not only for myself but for everybody that’s represented the Reds jumper. There are a lot of people who are really focused on this game and it wouldn’t be doing the game and the jumper justice by thinking about other things that you can’t control.”

Cooper in happier times for his country, scoring against Fiji back in 2010 – Photo: seiserphotography.com.au

His coach wasn’t going to be drawn into the debate either.

“I’m biaised. I get the chance to pick Quade every week and have done for four years and he’s rewarded me with a lot of success. I can’t speak highly enough about him and the way he contributes to how we want to play. I know how we’re going to play tomorrow night and Quade’s going to suit that down to a tee.”

Cooper will also don the captain’s armband, something he admitted he hasn’t done since his school rugby days. For McKenzie, missing his usual generals in James Horwill and Will Genia, the enigmatic flyhalf was the obvious choice.

“The way our game functions, Quade’s been integral in that for four years now. He facilitates a lot of what happens on the field and around the game and what we’re going to do each week and has always taken a leadership of the game plan. We’ve got a very specific task at hand and I can’t think of a better guy to run it for us.”

With so many sub-plots to the game, the first real test of the Lions’ strength and resources and a sell-out 52,000 crowd expected at the magnificent Suncorp Stadium, this promises to be an absolute belter and shapes up as the most important game of the tour outside of the three tests. While appreciating what the tourists are bringing to the table, McKenzie sees some loose strands ripe for pulling.

“We recognise the strengths of the Lions and what they bring and we haven’t seen the best of them yet and we haven’t seen all of the tricks that they’ve got either but we know that that’s all there,” he observed. “Clearly the way they’ve been selecting they’re still mixing it up and having a look and they’ve also had to deal with a fair bit of travel so, there’s some circumstances there which we can play around with but we’ve put all our efforts into being able to win this game.”

This wily shark definitely smells blood in the water…