Quade Cooper

It marked the celebration of Australia winning the rugby gold medal at the 1908 London Olympics.

Cooper was involved in a touchline fight between Federico Pucciariello after tussling into the advertising boards and needed to be separated by colleagues and verbally warned by referee Chris White.

Cooper performed a try assist after a chip kick to Morgan Turinui in the 72nd minute, securing their first bonus-point victory in four years.

Quade Santini Cooper (born 5 April 1988) is a professional rugby union player and occasional boxer.

Although born in New Zealand, he has represented Australia in rugby at international level.

He currently plays for Hanazono Liners in Japan, and is a former player for the Queensland Reds and the Melbourne Rebels in the Super Rugby competition in Australia.

His preferred position is fly-half.

Quade Santini Cooper was born in Auckland, New Zealand on 5 April 1988.

He has three sisters, Shavarn, Georgie, and Pania and two brothers, Reuben and Moses.

As a one-year-old Cooper moved to Tokoroa and was raised by his mother and step-father, Ruhia and David Jones.

He attended Forest View High School before moving to Brisbane, Australia in 2001, at 13-years-old.

In Brisbane, Cooper attended Rochedale State High School and Springwood State High School before being awarded a scholarship to Anglican Church Grammar School, where he excelled for their first XV rugby union team from 2005 till 2006.

In the first year of his ascendance, his team tied for the Queensland GPS Premiership with Brisbane State High School in 2005.

Cooper played in all the age group rugby union and league sides in Waikato.

He toured the United Kingdom as five-eighth or fullback with the Australian Schoolboys in 2005, alongside David Pocock and Lachie Turner.

He rejoined the side in 2006, furthering his total caps to nine, which was the then equal schoolboy record.

He also forced his way into the Reds' side as a teenager in 2006.

Cooper was selected as a replacement against Japan at the National Stadium, Tokyo in November, winning 29–22.

Cooper joined the ARU-funded high-performance program with the national talent squad, and signed with the Queensland Reds for the 2007 Super 14 season.

At 18-years-old, Cooper made his debut appearance for the Reds in Round 2 of the competition, against the Crusaders at Jade Stadium, Christchurch.

The Reds went on to lose the game by eleven points.

Unfortunately, the franchise finished bottom of the table, having won just two of 13 games.

It saw head coach Eddie Jones resign after an 89-point defeat by the Bulls.

It was later unveiled Cooper would be the first five-eighth for one of the two Queensland teams, the East Coast Aces in the inaugural Australian Rugby Championship.

The side was guided by former Samoa coach John Boe and Australian lock Garrick Morgan.

It was reported by The Sunday Mail early 2008 that the New Zealand Rugby Union showed interest and had held preliminary talks with Cooper's management team after he would be off contract at season's end with Queensland.

It was understood the Hurricanes were in line for his signature, and including a possible defection to rugby league.

Cooper was involved in a famous upset five-tries-to-one victory over the Bulls.

Head coach Phil Mooney made six changes to the side that started against the Stormers the previous week, which earned Cooper's first start of the 2008 season.

Cooper was amongst seven Super 14 players included in the Australian national under-20 side after coach Brian Melrose confirmed the team naming for the inaugural 2008 IRB Junior World Championships in June.

Cooper impressed, coming third in most conversions converted behind Francois Brummer and Trent Renata of New Zealand.

Australia had the youngest and heaviest squad in the tournament.

After receiving age-grade honors, Cooper was later selected for Australia in their 2008 end-of-year tour campaign.

He made his international test debut against Italy, as a substitute back.

Cooper scored a late try to help Australia to a victory over Italy in Padova, with eight minutes remaining.

He made another further two replacement appearances against France and Wales before playing in the historic match against The Barbarian F.C. at Wembley Stadium.

National Rugby League clubs and NZRU officials came up unsuccessful in attempting to sign Cooper in 2009.

The New Zealand Rugby Union showed interest in luring him back to New Zealand as they faced a possible loss of New Zealand international first five-eighth Dan Carter.

Cooper instead re-signed with Australia and the Reds.

After repeating another near bottom of the table finish, Cooper was one of just four players and the only member of the backline to appear in all thirteen matches during the Reds 2009 Super 14 campaign.