Quade Cooper recently claimed that he\u2019s \u201cinterested\u201d in a Wallabies call-up ahead of the 2027 World Cup, and former teammates of his are all for it.<\/p>\n
Despite having not played a professional match since May 2025, the 38-year-old insists he has not given up the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing is I never retired, I just had other opportunities that presented themselves, and at the time when I was deciding do I want to keep playing, I was very mentally tired,\u201d Cooper told\u00a0The Australian\u00a0newspaper on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo am I interested? I mean, who wouldn\u2019t be? It\u2019s a home\u00a0World Cup,<\/a>\u00a0and I still know I can play.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, of course, I\u2019m interested, along with every other ex-player and every other up-and-coming young guy. I\u2019m sure that everybody wants a piece of it in some way.\u201d<\/p>\n Cooper is currently coaching at Japanese side Kintetsu, but with Manie Libbok holding down the number 10 shirt, the Wallabies hopeful will likely need to venture elsewhere if he\u2019s to get some game time. However, with no Australian Super Rugby teams reportedly interested<\/a> in the highly experienced fly-half, his options are starting to look limited.<\/p>\n Springboks v All Blacks: World Rugby announce match officials appointments for Rugby\u2019s Greatest Rivalry tour with just one Super Rugby Pacific referee included<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re good enough, you\u2019re good enough\u201d<\/p>\n Limited or not, former colleague Drew Mitchell has backed him.<\/p>\n Speaking on the KOKO Show this week, Mitchell said: \u201cWho cares how old he is if he\u2019s capable?<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s had a year off now; he\u2019s got to prove himself to be capable, but I don\u2019t care if he\u2019s 18 or 38, if you\u2019re good enough, you\u2019re good enough.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s got to find a gig next year. I think for him to make it, I would imagine it would have to be a Super Rugby gig, improve himself, and, as I said, I don\u2019t care how old he is.\u201d<\/p>\n Want more from Planet Rugby? Add us as\u00a0a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0for world-class coverage you can trust.<\/p>\n Matt Giteau added: \u201cI assumed that he was out of the picture and retired. But then I saw that he actually didn\u2019t say that.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just trying to read between the lines; maybe he\u2019s got a good relationship with Lessie [Wallabies head coach Les Kiss]. Maybe with Joe [Schmidt] it just was never going to be. Maybe he\u2019s got a better relationship with Les.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I agree with Drew, it\u2019s gonna be tough to get a gig this late. I know that he\u2019s with Kintetsu, but they got Manie Libbok at 10 there, so I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll give him a gig where he\u2019ll get enough minutes to prove himself.\u201d<\/p>\n