Barnes non-selection critical to Wallabies demise

Quade Cooper struggled against New Zealand in the world cup semi-final

Quade Cooper, the 2010 Super 14 player of the series and Wallabies play maker, has certainly fallen short of expectation coming from the 2011 Rugby World Cup. His error-riddled performances against South Africa and New Zealand in the quarter and semi finals have drawn wide spread criticism. But, was he the reason the Wallabies were unable to go all the way to world cup glory?

There is no doubting that Cooper's performance against South Africa was well under par and his start against the All Blacks left a lot to be desired. However, I find it hard to lay the Wallabies' failures purely on the shoulders of Cooper. Australia were thoroughly out-played in their semi-final encounter by a superior line up, that of the All Blacks, and despite his blooper filled match against the Springboks they managed a win. While Cooper started slowly in the semi final, his second half performance was mostly sound as he attempted to spark some life back into the Australian attack.

The real short comings of the Wallabies World Cup campaign, I feel, remain in the hands of Robbie Deans who picked the out-of-sorts Cooper for these high pressure games. Berrick Barnes would have certainly got the nod for me ahead of Cooper following his quarter final performance. Barnes would have added solidity and consistency when needed most. He is a reliable play maker who works the percentages and guides the team with a territory based mind-set which would have been ideal for a close game at finals level in a world cup.

With this in mind, Cooper was not the only Australian player not to live up to the hype at the world cup. It appeared Will Genia struggled with slow ball and was placed under great pressure when trying to deliver the ball to his backs which led to numerous errors and dropped balls. The Australian scrum, while much improved, once again was exposed under pressure situation and was penalised on many occasions. The flare of the backs, in spite of its entertaining potential, lead to many handling errors and placed unnecessary pressure on the forwards to secure the ball when isolated continuously. With all these compounded variables I think it unfair to place the blame solely on the erratic and unconvincing Cooper.


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