{"id":294024,"date":"2023-05-07T07:57:13","date_gmt":"2023-05-07T07:57:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=294024"},"modified":"2023-05-07T10:59:08","modified_gmt":"2023-05-07T10:59:08","slug":"cooper-nearly-resets-benchmark-on-rugby-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=294024","title":{"rendered":"Cooper nearly resets benchmark on rugby return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallabies<\/a> hopeful Quade Cooper<\/a> nearly bested his own club records upon returning to rugby nine months after blowing his Achilles tendon.<\/p>\n

Cooper made his first meaningful appearance for the Hanazono Kintetsu Liners in the Rugby League One competition this season, just a few weeks after a bizarre cameo in which his first outing lasted just one minute<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A prerequisite for contesting the promotion\/relegation series is having played in the regular season round-robin.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2023 Super Rugby Pacific and Super W seasons on the home of rugby, Stan Sport. <\/strong><\/em>All matches streaming ad free, live and on demand<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Cooper was named in Sunday's starting line-up against the Urayasu D-Rocks, which featured Israel Folau.<\/p>\n

\"Quade<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old played the first 40 minutes before being subbed off for former Hurricanes fly-half Jackson Garden-Bachop early in the second half.<\/p>\n

It was Cooper's team that prevailed in the first game, winning 36-14 at Yurtec Stadium Sendai in Miyagi. The Liners scored five tries to the D-Rocks two.<\/p>\n

Taking to social media, Cooper hailed his return to the game a success.<\/p>\n

"It was a great feeling being back out there," he wrote on Twitter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Was nice to be part of the win and continue the journey another week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"Felt good physically and clocked my third fastest accelerations in the four years I've been at this club which is a good sign and also my second best top speed."\u00a0<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/LeagueOne_JP\/status\/1654986526856736770<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior to the kick-off, Cooper posted a philosophical reflection after the lengthy layoff.<\/p>\n

"Sitting in the locker room for my first game reflecting on the journey so far," Cooper wrote.<\/p>\n

"Grateful for every opportunity this game has provided along the way and more important the lessons we learn throughout the journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"One thing I've learned is that success is what you work toward every day.<\/p>\n

"There's no top of the mountain you just keep climbing and in that, you find your success."<\/p>\n

The Liners will face the D-Rocks in game two on May 13 at Hanazono Rugby Stadium in Osaka.<\/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 <\/strong><\/em>clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wallabies hopeful Quade Cooper nearly bested his own club records upon returning to rugby nine months after blowing his Achilles tendon. Cooper made his first […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":294026,"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\/294024"}],"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=294024"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294024\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":294027,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294024\/revisions\/294027"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/294026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}