Cooper now a critical cog in Wallaby machine

At the time, Quade Cooper’s omission from the Wallabies squad that faced the British and Irish Lions was painted as a disaster for the series.

Chuck in the benefit of hindsight and we can be certain it was far, far greater than that. In a sporting sense, of course.

Australia were on borrowed time, a team floundering in what we now know were the death throes of the Robbie Deans era. The Lions, though a boon economically to a code in dire straits, arrived at precisely the wrong time.