Rugby: Giteau good option as backup for Cooper

Matt Giteau. Photo / Supplied

Might the happiest rugby player in Australia today be Matt Giteau?

He has been on the outer with coach Robbie Deans for a while now, but the sight of Quade Cooper looking anything but an organised, cool-headed No 10 at Eden Park on Saturday night must surely have Deans rethinking his World Cup strategy.

One part of which has to be ensuring Giteau is on the plane to New Zealand in about three weeks' time. Giteau is not the world's finest first five-eighths by a stretch. But he is a hard-headed competitor, who has played 92 tests over nine years.

In that time he's accumulated a fair amount of knowledge. He's a sharp runner, and tidy kicker and his card has not been marked as a noticably unwilling defender.

Should Deans remain wedded to the idea of Cooper, he'll want the best available backup. Step forward Giteau.

Saturday was Cooper's chance to show all the puff about the quality of his game was more than just that.

Possessing a twinkly pair of feet in Super 15 is one thing; being up to the job of running an operation in a hard-edged test against a top-class team is quite another.

Even if not at the top of his game, Giteau would have been a better option than Cooper. The Tokoroa export was shown up as desperately frail if things aren't going right.

Confidence is a big part of his game. His disappeared quickly on Saturday night and he got worse as the contest wore on.

Not only did he lack assertivness and clear thinking, he threw a stream of awful passes, and managed to toss one ball behind him to no one into the Australian in-goal area, leaving a team-mate to tidy up his mess.

That spoke loudly of a player not especially keen on taking a hit for the team.

When the going is good, and the forwards are sending decent possession his way, Cooper has got a touch of magic. But that was never going to be the situation on Saturday night and the game called for someone with a calm demeanour who could think his way out of difficult situations.

Instead it was boy against man, with Daniel Carter giving a five-star exhibition on the arts both when in possession and not. It was as if Cooper had turned up to a sword fight armed with a pencil.

Can he be relied upon should the same teams square off at the same ground on October 23? Let's just say you'd want some decent cover.

Another name? Berrick Barnes, making a late bid after taking time out for concussion problems.

He's no mug and if he can make the August 18 deadline for Cup squad announcements, must be considered.