Mate-on-mate showdown ends in fit of the giggles
Mate-on-mate showdown ends in fit of the giggles
IT'S not supposed to be like this in professional rugby, where the "mate against mate, state against state" theme usually is played out against a backdrop of grim faces and bone-shuddering hits.
It's totally out of order for professionals to get the giggles, but that's precisely what happened to best mates Quade Cooper and James O'Connor as they headed towards a very public collision out in the open during the Queensland Reds versus Western Force match at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday.
Reds five-eighth Cooper had broken free down the right flank and was setting sail for the distant tryline when he spotted O'Connor haring across as the sole Force cover defender.
"It was just like a drill we do at the Wallabies, me and him," Cooper said yesterday.
"As he came across I was looking at him and he started smiling and it got the better of me."
What happened next wouldn't have been a laughing matter for Queensland fans had not the Reds -- thanks in large measure to Cooper's brilliance off the back of a hard-working pack -- been 43-10 in front at the time.
"There was the big build-up," said Cooper, resuming the commentary. "He was going to smash me or I was going to step him." What happened next was neither. Cooper was so taken by the humour of the situation he lost his grip -- literally -- and the ball anti-climactically slipped out of his hands and bounced innocuously into touch.
"It just all fizzled out to nothing," said Cooper, who ended up ruffling O'Connor's hair after the two of them burst out laughing. "No one had the bragging rights. Or maybe he did because I goofed up and dropped the ball."
There was a time, most memorably after a Chiefs game in Hamilton two years ago when Cooper was quite capable of filling a blooper reel all by himself.
No longer. Now he is being tipped to takeover from Matt Giteau as the Wallabies five-eighth.
That's not talk the 21-year-old encourages. "I'd just like to make the Test team somewhere and hopefully my form warrants it. But Gits is playing well. He's the incumbent and the jersey is his."
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news...-1225841109027
