“You’re a square peg in a round hole” he said.
Excuse me, I am not a peg thank you very much, I am human being!
He wasn’t being literal of course. He wasn’t actually calling me a peg. He didn’t mean that I should trundle off, if pegs can trundle, and find myself a more accurately cut hole to plant myself in. I was doing a job that I had the skills and experience to do, but wasn’t very good at because it involved things that I struggle with.
For example, I like doing things once, and then moving on to something else. I’m at my best when I have a clear target and a time in which to complete it. I don’t like doing the same thing seven times. I do it right the first time, but after seven reviews and changes I lose interest and start making mistakes. I also don’t like being micro-managed. I lose my cool when people nit-pick at inconsequential things and give conflicting instructions. I don’t do well when there is a lot of faffing with things.
I’ve learned and am much more efficient at the work I do and the way I relate to the chain of command at work but even so, I’m better at what I do when I do a job that fits the way I think.
Quade Cooper – Flyhalf or Fullback?
Flyhalf and fullback involve quite similar skillsets. Both positions require skilful players that can kick, catch, attack the line and so on and so forth. Very often players can play both. Pat Lambie, Joe Pietersen, Israel Dagg and Stephan Larkham are all equally adept at both positions. Others, however, can’t switch between the two as easily. Zane Kirchner wouldn’t make a good flyhalf, but he is a good solid fullback. Jonny Wilkinson was a great flyhalf but I don’t think he would have been as good a fullback.
There are players, however, who simply chose or were picked in the wrong position. Jaco van der Westhuyzen is a great example of this. He was picked at flyhalf for the Springboks and had a fairly dire few games there for them. He was panned by everyone and their aunt and ended up going to play overseas in Japan. He returned a few years later with long hair, a beard and an absolutely blistering game at fullback. He took to it like a duck to water. His unpredictability combined with his good boot and pace off the mark made him a match winner that he could never be at flyhalf. He didn’t have the right mind-set for flyhalf, he was too free spirited, too unpredictable and to ask him to stop doing that and be tactically minded was unfair and just a bad idea.
I see a very similar situation when I watch Quade Cooper play. Yes, he can be brilliant at number ten but just as often can look lost and confused. I really do believe he is playing in the wrong position. He should be playing fullback. He has the counter attacking brilliance a good fullback needs. He has a good boot and is decent under the high ball. He is a free spirit much like Jaco van der Westhuyzen and should be let loose and allowed to express that on the rugby field. I think he’d be a match winner there. Fullback is the right hole for his peg… So to speak.
In the end it is his decision, however, and nobody can make up his mind for him but if I were his coach it is something I’d seriously urge him to consider.
“Main Photo”
