Adam Ashley-Cooper
Fullback
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Profile
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Height:
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182cm
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Weight:
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98kg
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Date Of Birth:
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27/03/1984
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Place of Birth:
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Sydney NSW
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Rugby Career
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Senior Club:
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Northern Suburbs
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Stats
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Provincial Rugby Caps:
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106 [NSW 28, ACT 78]
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Provincial Rugby Points:
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93 (18t, 1d), [Brumbies 70 (14t); NSW 23 (4t, 1dg)]
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Provincial Rugby Debut:
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2005 v Crusaders
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Super Rugby Caps:
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106 [NSW 28, ACT 78]
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Super Rugby Points:
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93 (18t, 1d), [Brumbies 70 (14t); NSW 23 (4t, 1dg)]
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Super Rugby Debut:
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2005 v Crusaders
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Test Rugby Caps:
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77
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Test Rugby Points:
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115 (23t)
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Test Rugby Debut:
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2005 v South Africa
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A former NSW junior representative, Adam Ashley-Cooper enters his second season with the HSBC Waratahs on the back of a yet another season of international consistency.
Returning to his home state in 2012 after eight seasons in Canberra, in his first season back home in NSW, Adam made his debut against the Reds at ANZ Stadium and went on to become one of only four players to play in every match of 2012, starting all 16 of the team’s FxPro Super Rugby encounters. In 2013, Ashley-Cooper capped off his 100th Super Rugby game with a match winning try against the Western Force.
Despite having a passion for rugby as a six-year-old, the talented and versatile outside back only started to take the game seriously at the age of 17. Educated at Berkeley Vale High School, Adam got his first real taste of the sport as a 15-year-old while living on the NSW Central Coast. Having played junior rugby for local side Ourimbah, he began playing junior state representative football, before moving to Sydney to coincide with his university studies with the aim of becoming a professional rugby player. At the age of 19, he moved to Canberra to take up his first professional contract.
The versatility that was already evident in his teenage years - he played both 10 and 12 - has since seen him become the ‘Mister Fix It’ of the Australian backline. The only member of the Qantas Wallabies squad to feature in all 13 Tests played by the team last term, such is the 28-year-old’s importance to the team that he has missed just five of the 60 Tests played by Australia between 2008 and the start of the inaugural Rugby Championship in 2012.
A very busy 2011 saw him become the only player to feature in every minute of a full Rugby World Cup campaign of seven matches. His seven tries saw him finish as the tournament’s second most prolific try-scorer. That included three in an eight minute period during Australia’s 67-5 win over the United States at Wellington. Not only was that first hat-trick of Ashley-Cooper’s career at any level, the three tries gathered between the 58th and 66th minutes of that match represented the fastest hat-trick in Rugby World Cup history.
He is the nephew of the PNG-born former NSW Waratah and Wallaby Graeme Bond. The family descends from the sixth Earl of Shaftsbury, Cropley Ashley-Cooper (1768-1851). The Earl represented Dorchester in Parliament for 21 years and was a descendant of William the Conqueror.
During his first year back in NSW, Adam shared a unit with team mates Rocky Elsom and Drew Mitchell. Despite Rocky now moving on, Adam and Drew still share a place in Coogee.
If he wasn’t playing rugby, Adam says he would probably have become a PE teacher or a Bondi rescue lifeguard and lists his role models in life as his mum and dad.
Outside his sport, Adam supports a number of community and charity projects. He is ‘extremely proud and humbled’ to be an ambassador for the Fresh Tracks Foundation, helping raise awareness and funds for those suffering ABI (Acquired Brain Injuries). His passion for tea and new opportunities has recently seen him develop his own tea, Boutea, available in Australia soon.
Updated May 21, 2013