Quade Cooper's Rio Olympics dream crushed

Quade Cooper's hopes of representing Australia at the Rio Olympics are over after sevens coach Andy Friend announced he'd been overlooked.

Cooper made his sevens debut in Las Vegas earlier this year, but Friend dropped a bombshell on Thursday by saying the Wallaby wouldn't be considered.

"There's no doubt Quade is a quality player, but put simply, we just haven't had the opportunity to work with him as much as we would have liked over the past five months," Friend said.

"Each day I have a group of 20-plus players working on different structures and patterns of play and I don't think we would have got the very best out of Quade had we just thrown him into a tournament with limited preparation — particularly for an event as momentous as the Olympics.

"As many players have found out throughout this season's world series, it is no easy task to transition from fifteens to the sevens form of the game.

"Although we are still a few months out from the Games, I think it offers the fairest outcome for everyone by making the call now.

"Quade can channel his energies into Toulon while we can enter the next phase of our preparations for Rio knowing the direction we want to take.

"I have complete faith in the players we currently have in the sevens program and their ability to perform on the big stage.

"We have two big tournaments coming up in the next couple of weeks in Paris and London and I'm confident we have given ourselves the best possible chance to perform in those events."

The ARU did not seek Cooper's release from his French club Toulon for upcoming tournaments in Paris and London.