Eels Blogs

THERE is a certain irony in Dan Vickerman re-signing with Australian rugby on the same day it was revealed Quade Cooper is considering an offer from NRL team Parramatta Eels.

Vickerman will return to Australia next year to bid for selection in the Wallabies' World Cup squad after spending three years studying economics at the University of Cambridge.

But if the ARU had conducted its negotiations with Vickerman differently in 2008, he may well have remained in Australia and deferred his studies until he had completed his rugby career.

Sources close to Vickerman say the difference between what he was asking for and what the ARU offered was only about $20,000, but the reason the negotiation broke down was not because of money. It was about respect -- or the lack of it.

As a senior member of the Wallabies and one of the best players in the world in his position, Vickerman did not feel the ARU valued him sufficiently.

How much more could the Wallabies have achieved over the past 2 1/2 years if Vickerman was in the team?

If not a Bledisloe Cup or Tri-Nations victory, Australia almost certainly would have broken its run of nine straight losses to the All Blacks with Vickerman in the side. The Vickerman story is a salutary lesson for the ARU when it continues its negotiations with Cooper.

It is understood the ARU has offered Cooper only a $100,000 top-up to his Super rugby contract with Queensland Reds, which means he will probably earn about $250,000 to $270,000 a season.

Even if Reds benefactor, mining magnate Kevin Maloney, provides a third-party endorsement, the package will still be considerably less than what the cashed-up Eels can offer.

ARU chief executive John O'Neill is right when he describes the 22-year-old Cooper as a "rising star", but in the rugby public's consciousness he is already a superstar.

O'Neill suggested Cooper was yet to fully prove himself because he had not played a Test against the All Blacks.

It will be interesting to see how Cooper and his management react to that assessment of his worth.

Cooper was the Australian Super 14 Player of the Year and generally credited as being a key figure in the Reds' renaissance.

Until he was suspended for a dangerous tackle in the Wallabies' 30-17 win against the Springboks in Brisbane a few weeks ago, Cooper was the first-choice five-eighth, having forced Matt Giteau to inside centre and Berrick Barnes to the reserves bench.

There is now a view that the Wallabies cannot win the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand without Cooper at five-eighth.

That would make him a fairly valuable commodity.

Some people are sceptical about Cooper's interest in switching to rugby league and think his manager is just trying to bump up his price.

This may well be the case, but the ARU would be silly to think Cooper does not have genuine options.

Cooper could play rugby league, join a rich European or Japanese rugby club or even move to the Western Force to secure a lucrative third-party endorsement.

He is young enough to play in the next two World Cups after 2011.

O'Neill said yesterday he hoped to conclude negotiations with Cooper before the Wallabies embarked on a two-Test tour of South Africa on Friday, which indicated the ARU would be prepared to make concessions.

The last thing the ARU wants to do is call Cooper's bluff, because he is holding all the aces.