Adam ‘Swoop’ Ashley-Cooper poised to join Wallaby centurions
Veteran back remains the heart and soul of Australia as he steps out against the All Blacks to play his 100th test
Former Australia coach Robbie Deans once described Adam Ashley-Cooper as the glue that held the Wallabies together and rarely has the versatile back's ability to bring coherence to the side been needed more than in his 100th test.
The fallout from the row over texts allegedly sent by Kurtley Beale about a team official in June have left the Wallabies in crisis and coach Ewen McKenzie clinging to the job by his finger nails ahead of today's test against New Zealand.
If the Wallabies respond at Lang Park with the sort of backs-to-the-wall performance Australians are hoping for, Ashley-Cooper (pictured) will be at the heart of it.
Adam has had a remarkable career and he deserves the accolades, which come with joining what is an extremely elite group of players
The 30-year-old has mostly taken a back seat to more spotlight-hungry teammates in the nine years since his test debut against South Africa in extraordinary circumstances in Perth.
While the more vaunted talents have all suffered fluctuations in form or fortune, Ashley-Cooper has rarely had a bad game at full back, in the centres or on the wing, where he will start today.
Such reliability has earned him nicknames like "Mr Fixit" or "Mr Dependable" in the media, but to his teammates it is "Swoop" who will join George Gregan, Nathan Sharpe, George Smith, Stephen Larkham and David Campese as an Australian test centurion.
"Adam has had a remarkable career and he deserves the accolades, which come with joining what is an extremely elite group of players to have played 100 games for Australia," McKenzie said this week.
"It's a massive honour and a true testament of his ability to play at a consistently high level over such a long period of time."
Ashley-Cooper is related to the aristocratic British family of the Earls of Shaftesbury but grew up on the central coast of New South Wales just north of Sydney.
After an early flirtation with tennis, he followed his Wallaby uncle Graham Bond into union with the ACT Brumbies, earning his first cap after just three Super Rugby starts.
Famously, he was about to watch the match with a meat pie and a beer when he was sent scuttling to the dressing room to suit up after Clyde Rathbone was injured in the warm-up.
He was to wait nearly two years for his second cap, but he has since been virtually ever-present in the green and gold, playing every minute of the 2011 World Cup campaign.
Some of his best moments include a brilliant try when Australia beat New Zealand in Hong Kong in 2010, and the winner against the British and Irish Lions in the second test victory in Melbourne last year.
Seven of his 28 tries have come against the All Blacks and he would love to wrest the Bledisloe Cup from the New Zealanders next season - it is already lost this year - before he heads abroad after the World Cup.
He did achieve one career goal this year, though, securing the Super Rugby title with the New South Wales Waratahs after scoring two tries in a man-of-the-match performance in the final against Canterbury Crusaders.
