With first-choice five-eighth James O'Connor still sidelined with injury, Wallabies coach Dave Rennie continues to persist with 21-year-old Noah Lolesio in the driver's seat, with Reece Hodge and Matt To'omua providing back up.<\/p>\n
W<\/em><\/strong><\/a>atch every match of the Rugby Championship with live, ad-free and on-demand coverage on Stan Sport<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n An unlikely Cooper comeback appeared possible when the 33-year-old was put up for media duties last week – in a chat where he insisted that he wasn't losing sleep over whether or not he added to his 70 Tests.<\/a><\/p>\n Rennie said last week O'Connor is close to a comeback and could be considered for selection in next Sunday's clash with the world champion Springboks on the Gold Coast.<\/p>\n Lolesio struggled to impose himself in today's 38-21 defeat at Perth's Optus Stadium.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Star calls Wallabies 'soft' after latest beating<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Horan lauds All Blacks as best team in the world<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> All Blacks star stunned by controversial send off<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n "The non-selection that baffled me before the game was the non-selection of Quade Cooper," Williams said on Stan Sport's post-game coverage.<\/p>\n "I know that it might be biased coming from my lips, because I'm close to him but just from a rugby point of view, what he can add…<\/p>\n "Brother Reece, he's Mr Fix-It, he's a great player but I think in terms of unlocking this great All Blacks defence, Quade is your man."<\/p>\n Williams pointed out that the Wallabies finished strongly in all three Bledisloe Tests – when the horse had well and truly bolted.<\/p>\n "For me I think it's a lack of belief in their own skill set, a lack of belief in pulling the trigger when the time is right, as we saw in that 20 minute spell when the All Blacks were down to 14 men," the two-time Rugby World Cup winner said.<\/p>\n "They didn't pull the trigger at all and conversely the All Blacks seem to have that belief. They still pulled that trigger when they had a man down."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sonny Bill Williams admits he is biased. But the All Blacks great is adamant that the struggling Wallabies would benefit from Quade Cooper's playmaking talents […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=124502"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124504,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124502\/revisions\/124504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=124502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=124502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=124502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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