Wallabies Re-Sign Cooper for Rugby World Cup After Playmaker Rejects NRL

Wallabies fly-half Quade Cooper agreed to a new one-year contract with the Australian Rugby Union, rejecting offers from overseas clubs and rugby league for the chance to play at next year’s World Cup in New Zealand.

The 22-year-old playmaker, who was voted the best Australian player in this year’s Super 14, had been weighing up his options the past month after talking to the Parramatta Eels about a possible switch to the rival National Rugby League.

“I wanted to stay and I wanted to bring it to a head now because these negotiations have taken time,” Cooper said in a statement. “It was time to bring some certainty to my future and now I can focus on what’s approaching, including the 2011 World Cup.”

Cooper, who’s scored 36 points in 18 Tests, has become Wallabies coach Robbie Deans’s first-choice fly-half after a breakthrough Super 14 season with the Queensland Reds.

New Zealand-born Cooper will play his first match against the All Blacks tomorrow in Sydney as Australia seeks to avoid an unprecedented 10th straight loss in a rivalry stretching back to 1903.

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