{"id":713898,"date":"2026-06-04T03:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713898\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T03:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T03:14:13","slug":"all-blacks-news-2026-quade-cooper-to-join-sky-new-zealand-commentary-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/713898\/","title":{"rendered":"All Blacks news 2026: Quade Cooper to join Sky New Zealand commentary team"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quade Cooper<\/a> is set for a surprise career move after being hired by Sky\u2019s commentary team for the All Blacks<\/a> vs France Test in Christchurch on July 4.<\/p>\n

Cooper, 38, was born in New Zealand but moved to Brisbane as a 13-year-old.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Fans boo as Quade Cooper of the Wallabies is given a yellow card at Eden Park in 2015.\u00a0nna\\sworthington<\/p>\n

The flamboyant playmaker represented the Wallabies<\/a> 80 times and became public enemy No.1 in New Zealand during the 2011 Rugby World Cup.<\/a><\/p>\n

Cooper was booed heavily during the tournament after his highly publicised running battle with All Blacks icon Richie McCaw.<\/p>\n

The New Zealand Herald reported that Sky was attracted to Cooper\u2019s insight into his ex-Wallabies coach Dave Rennie<\/a>, who will lead the All Blacks for the first time against France.<\/p>\n

Sky\u2019s broadcast of the glamour Nations Championship clash will be carried live in Australia on Stan Sport.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve assembled one of the strongest All Blacks broadcast teams in the country, and with the addition of Quade Cooper and an expanded focus on social coverage, we\u2019re excited to bring fans closer to the All Blacks than ever before,\u201d Sky\u2019s head of sport content Gary Burchett said.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Cooper admitted he had kneed McCaw in the head on purpose during a 2011 Bledisloe Cup<\/a> Test in Brisbane.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready I was a Kiwi boy playing for Australia,\u201d Cooper said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were already hating on me to start with. And then I go and knee the captain of the All Blacks, the untouchable, in the head. That\u2019s just even worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Richie McCaw of the All Blacks jostles Quade Cooper of the Wallabies in 2011 in Brisbane.\u00a0nna\\sworthington<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I walked into New Zealand for the World Cup, and it was just like, I have never been involved in anything like that. I couldn\u2019t go anywhere, I couldn\u2019t walk.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were coming up asking for photos and things like this, but as soon as they were away, I was on the team bus and everyone was shouting, with signs, saying \u2018I hope you break your leg, I hope you die in this game\u2019. Things like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI went from being well known to the most well known and the most hated. It was crazy. I look back at it now and I think, I wasn\u2019t ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCaw later accepted Cooper\u2019s apology.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you can stop writing them (stories) now. It\u2019s something that\u2019s been blown out of proportion if you ask me,\u201d McCaw said in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always said there is nothing personal there, I respect him as a player, there\u2019s no doubt. That\u2019s all we need to say about it really.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quade Cooper is set for a surprise career move after being hired by Sky\u2019s commentary team for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-713898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}