I am going to label Adam Ashley-Cooper as the myth of this Australian team. He seems almost untouchable, despite poor performances at both Wallaby and Super level.
There was once instance on the weekend where he tracked back to take a kick, with 2-3 chasers in front of him. He looked to his left to see an unmarked Harris, and further an unmarked Cummins. Rather than pass the ball he decided to take it into contact where he was outnumbered, and we were lucky to retain possession. He turned a likely 20m running gain (through Harris and Cummins) to a risk of losing the ball and being under pressure by France being able to break away.
This is happening way too much. All evidence points to him being a selfish player, and we can not afford selfish players if we are to improve our team performance. I say drop him immediately until he proves he can play the team game.
PS He also had 7 runs for 35m. Pretty low average for a winger.
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I would posit that his low stats are due to a rather fucking terrible shortage of pill for anyone wearing a jersey number > 12. I would agree with you though about that isolated instance where he should have thrown it to Harris, indeed I was yelling manically at my TV for him to do so.
BUT, I wholeheartedly disagree with you about him performing poorly at super rugby and Test level consistently. In fact I think that he has been by and large one of the better performing backs in a season of poor performances by backs (and consistently good for 3-4 years now). He seems to be our best at picking holes/angles to run and he is an excellent defender (particularly from 13), can kick the seed a fair way and is goodish under the high ball.
See the following
In short, he is indispensably solid but with enough X-factor to make him a consistent team selection.
He should be starting, and now that diggers is healthy, he should be starting at 13 with Mccabe and taps competing for the 12 spot (though I personally think in a backline without cooper, having the noted excellent short passing of tapuai right next to the 10 makes more sense, McCabes best spot is 13).