America loses it over incredible Quade Cooper video

Australians have witnessed Quade Cooper's brilliance for well over a decade now but the former Wallabies star has just tapped into a whole new audience.

The 32-year-old was always one of the flashiest players on the rugby field and he's given the world a reminder of his immense talent, with a stunning trick play that's gone global.

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Cooper is back in Australia after playing in his second season with Japanese second tier rugby side, Kintetsu Liners.

The Queensland Reds legend has been doing a bit of training with Brisbane Broncos NRL star Tevita Pangai Junior.

It was during one of his training hit-outs that Cooper decided to show off a variation of his famous flick pass that he perfected during his Super Rugby playing days.

Amateur footage captures Cooper standing with an NFL football in hand, gesturing as if he's going to throw it in the traditional manner of a quarterback.

His target is standing a good twenty to thirty metres away so it was always going to take a decent throw for Cooper to hit him.

After a couple of pump-fakes, Cooper spins and quickly flicks the ball around his back instead.

Slow motion video shows the perfect torpedo-like spin on the ball as the pass hits its long-range target perfectly on the chest.

So beautiful was the pass, the footage made it all the way to the States and Americans can't get enough.

American site Bleacher Report shared the clip to its social media accounts, where it's since been viewed more than one million times.

The awesome trick play even saw fellow sporting professionals, like St Kilda AFL star Bradley Hill, decide to give it a crack.

Ex-Wallaby’s plan for embattled Rugby Australia

Cooper's brilliant comes during a challenging time for rugby in Australia, with the code facing a significant financial crisis, their CEO under fire and reports the new Wallabies coach may walk away from the role.

Former Wallabies prop Ben Alexander says it's time to stop the blame game and is offering some creative solutions for the state of rugby in Australia.

The deep-thinking Alexander, who retired from professional rugby in 2018 with 72 Test caps to his credit, penned his thoughts on the game in the online forum "Letter".

Alexander says that with global sport at a standstill thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, now is not the time to sack embattled Rugby Australia chief executive Raelene Castle, with Phil Kearns reportedly the favoured replacement.

"Maybe Kearns is the Donald Trump-type character the game needs to unite the masses and 'Make Rugby Great Again'. Or will he only further divide the Australian Rugby public?", Alexander wrote.

"But now is not the time for an election, as Raelene Castle and the RA Board have urgent work to do, and shouldn't have to deal with this distraction."

He likened RA's financial "over-reliance" on their broadcast deal with Foxtel to the western economy's dependence on China for cheap manufacturing including face masks and pharmaceuticals.

With a growing number of customers consuming content via the internet and deserting pay-TV Alexander said depending on an external broadcast partner was like having "tea and scones in the first-class cabin of the Titanic" and backed Castle's call to test the open market.

The former Brumbies forward believes RA should consider a streaming model that cuts out the middle-man, similar to the NBA's subscription-based League Pass.

"While I'm totally clueless as to the costs involved to set something like this up, could Australian Rugby start its own streaming service, maintaining the bulk of the profits, and have rugby fans from all around the world, pay a monthly subscription to get all the great Aussie rugby content?"

Alexander said he recognised that grassroots rugby people were "fed up" with money being spent on the professional game in Australia without yielding results in the form of trophies.

Pointing to the strong and wealthy English and French domestic competitions, he pondered whether the large travel costs of Super Rugby provided value for money, in terms of breeding successful Wallabies.

"Could we place a greater emphasis on a domestic competition, while introducing a new international competition, where the travel costs are at manageable level, and games are played in 'Aussie fan friendly' timezones?," Alexander said.

with AAP