WORLD Cup winner David Campese believes Australian rugby will be the loser if Quade Cooper is pushed out the door.

Cooper is firmly on the outer in Australian rugby after being unwanted by new Queensland Reds coach Brad Thorn despite having two years left to run on his contract.

Thorn’s decision to snub Cooper — a veteran of 70 Tests and a Super Rugby winning playmaker — was a major bombshell.

The 29-year-old has struggled to regain the heights as he did in 2011, when he was the catalyst behind the Reds’ maiden title, but given the absence of other proven options, Campese’s eyebrows were raised.

“I think he’s good for the game,” Campese told foxsports.com.au.

“It will be frustrating, him going, because when he’s playing well people love him.

“When he plays poorly people hate him, but I think he’s got a lot of good attributes.

“He knows the way the game should be played.

“It’s a shame that one of the other provinces haven’t picked him.”

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Cooper isn’t just on the outer at the Reds.

Wallabies coach Michael Cheika — previously a firm supporter of the mercurial fly-half — has also changed his tune after luring Cooper back from France.

Despite some promising touches for the Wallabies last year during their June internationals against Fiji, Scotland and Italy, Cooper failed to earn selection in another national squad all season.

After leaving him out of his Rugby Championship squad, Cheika said Cooper needed to rediscover his love for rugby.

Cooper returned to Brisbane last week after spending the summer training with All Blacks star Sonny Bill Williams in New Zealand.

With the Japanese Top League wrapping up earlier this month and Europe’s competitions in progress, Cooper will likely play club rugby in Brisbane for the time being as he continues to assess his options.

Campese, one of rugby’s greatest all-time players and the Wallabies’ highest try scorer, said Cooper was the victim of coaches not being prepared to throw caution to the wind.

You sense he sees a kindred free spirit in Cooper.

David Campese has returned to live in Australia. Source: News Limited

“I saw on the Today Show teachers talking about kids — you’ve got to let the kids fail, you’ve got to let the kids try things,” Campese said.

“If they climb a tree, let them fall.

“I think sport’s very similar.

“You’ve got to let guys try things and see how good they can be.

“If you don’t allow them to be good, they’ll never succeed.

“Quade’s a very good player.

“Coaches hate flair because they can’t control flair, they can’t control it because you have no idea what he’s going to do when he gets out there.

“He looks at a situation, he makes a decision and it’s like players around him don’t give him options.

“When you have flair players, they’re creators, but the other players have got to learn — ‘if I give him an option it’s going to be very beneficial for both.’

“But they don’t know how to give options and I think that’s one of the reasons why he hasn’t been successful recently.

“It’s not him that’s the problem, it’s the players around him that can’t understand him.”

Campese, who earlier this month returned to Australia after spending a decade in South Africa, added that Cooper would have succeeded during his era, when Australia was the envy of the rugby world.

“If he was around our era I think he would have been very successful because that’s how we played,” Campese said.

“We had the Ellas — Gary, Glen and Mark, Australia’s brilliant playmaker — you had to try to think how to play the game, how to create.

“The coaches these days are very different.”