The man they call ‘Swoop’ has been a long standing servant for the Wallabies, and will join an elite group of players to reach triple digits when he runs out against the All Blacks on Saturday night.
Following almost identically in the footsteps of his Wallaby uncle Graeme Bond, AAC too has represented the Brumbies, Waratahs and Wallabies – he even made his international debut at the same ground, against the same opposition as Bond.
With just days until he becomes only the sixth man to play 100 Tests for the Wallabies, without a doubt Ashley-Cooper will go down in history as one of our best ever.
While we still get to enjoy watching Australian Rugby’s Mr Fix-it terrorise opposition defences in a gold jersey for at least one more year, we wanted to take the opportunity at this significant milestone to look at five of the best AAC moments.
The Debut
After only taking the game of Rugby up at 15 years of age, AAC made his Wallabies debut against the Springboks way back in 2005. The story of Swoop’s debut has gone down in Australian Rugby folklore as one of the strangest and most bizarre of all time, not so much for the performance, but because of the lead up to the game itself.
Originally on his way to his Northern Suburbs team training to prepare for a trip out West to face the Parramatta Two Blues in Sydney’s Shute Shield, Swoop received an SOS call from then Wallabies Coach, Eddie Jones asking him to join the Men in Gold as injury cover.
Swoop’s road trip out west turned into a flight even further west to Perth where he secured some free kit and the best seat in the house at Subiaco Oval for the Wallabies-Springboks clash.
Swoop took his seat on the bench alongside the other non-playing Wallabies expecting to enjoy the spectacle with a meat pie in hand. But just two minutes after kick off he was ushered off to the dressing rooms and told to kit up. The injury curse had struck and with Clyde Rathbone going down in the warm up, Swoop was to earn his first Wallabies cap. Due to the urgency of his call up, the jersey he donned as he ran out on the field had no number on the back, but regardless, with minutes remaining in the Test, he became Wallaby no.800.
The Double Tackle
Following his Wallabies debut, which came after just three Super 12 games, AAC has continued to defy the odds his entire career. One of the most memorable Swoop moments that certainly defied belief was the now famous ‘double tackle’.
Against the Springboks again, AAC put his body on the line to take out two Bok attackers to save what would have been a certain try, making for some impressive viewing – Wallabies fan or not!
Launching himself at Springboks Winger, Lwazi Mvovo, Swoop managed to catapult himself over the top of the attacker and on to Jean De Villiers who he managed to force into touch to prevent an extra five-pointer for South Africa.
The Try v Lions :: II Test
Adam Ashley-Cooper has scored some crucial tries throughout his career, but perhaps one of the most vital was against the British and Irish Lions during the Second match of last year’s three-Test series.
Trailing by 15-9 with just minutes remaining, anything less than seven points would see the Lions claim the series.
Step up AAC.
With the Wallabies grinding away on the visitors line, the play came blind to James O’Connor who gave the ball to Swoop who produced a trademark fend to cross the chalk and bag some meat.
Though the Wallabies went on to lose the series in the final Test, the heroics of AAC and Christian Lealiifano, who kicked the winning goal, would not be forgotten.
The work with the Bingham Cup
A superstar on the field, less known is Adam Ashley-Cooper’s endeavours off the field, although they're just as notable.
A huge supporter of the Bingham Cup, AAC has long sought to promote equality in Rugby and ridding the sport of homophobia.
The Bingham Cup, the Gay Rugby World Cup, is named after Mark Bingham, who died in the September 11 terrorist attacks. Mark was one of a number of passengers who went to amazing measures to approach the hijackers and eventually crash the plane in a vacant field.
Inspired by this, AAC and a number of other high profile Rugby players and athletes threw their support behind the tournament and all that it embodies.
Former Welsh and British and Irish Lions Fullback Gareth Thomas, the only openly gay International Rugby player, described to ESPN Scrum the respect he had for Adam Ashley-Cooper.
"People like Adam Ashley-Cooper speaking out, it gives people one less worry and it gives them a shoulder to be able to go to and ear to talk to. And it's someone you know you're not going to be judged on your sexuality but just on you're playing ability. If the world were full of Adam Ashley-Cooper’s, which there are a lot of advocates, then there wouldn't be a problem in sport. So the more they speak out the less the problem becomes.”
Bravo, Adam.
The Double Meat in the Super Rugby Final
The most recent of the Top Five AAC moments, but destined to become one of the most famous, came when the Waratahs ended decades of disappointment with the help of an inspired brace by Adam Ashley-Cooper.
Playing against the best team in the history of Super Rugby, the Tahs came in to the Final as underdogs despite finishing as the 2014 Minor Premiers. With the Crusaders renowned for having the toughest defence in the competition, AAC busted the line to score not once, but twice.
After slicing through the defence to score the first try of the final, AAC repeated the feet in the second half, scoring an almost identical five pointer to the one he scored in the second Lions Test in the year prior.
Congratulations on reaching your 100th Test milestone for the Wallabies and all the best this Saturday night against the All Blacks.
