While Cooper's appeal over his two-match suspension was dismissed last night, prompting him to also miss next Saturday's Bledisloe Cup match in Christchurch, other notable players have got away with considerably more alarming tackles.

Fairfax can reveal that Hurricanes and All Blacks centre Ma'a Nonu only received a yellow card for a dangerous spear tackle on Cheetahs captain Juan Smith in a Super14 match in Bloemfontein last March, and was not cited.

This is just one of four tackles of a similar nature in the past two Super 14 seasons, where players were either guilty of lifting a player in the tackle, or making a spear tackle, receiving just a yellow card, and with no further action by the citing commissioner.

However Cooper's far less offensive tackle on his opposite Morne Steyn in Brisbane last Saturday night, where he was sinbinned before being cited, will see him miss two of Australia's most important Tests of the season.

It also ruined his chance of at last playing against the country of his birth.

The Wallabies appealed over the severity of the Cooper sentence, due to discrepancies in suspensions handed down in recent weeks to South African Test players who were similarly involved in dangerous tackles.

Jean de Villiers received a two-week suspension, but will miss just one Tri Nations match and a Currie Cup game this weekend, which he was unlikely to play in anyway, as the Springboks are planning to rest all of their key players.

While Jaque Fourie received a three-match suspension, it incorporates one Test and two Currie Cup games.

After an appeal hearing, which lasted over four hours yesterday, Cooper discovered that he would now have to leave the Wallabies squad and not return until it heads to South Africa in late August.

''I'm obviously disappointed to miss two Bledisloe Cup games, but we did have a fair appeal,'' Cooper said last night.

''Playing this weekend was something I was looking forward to, especially it being Tri Nations matches. I hadn't really experienced much of the Tri Nations, apart from last week against South Africa and that was just a taste of it.

''Hopefully I get the chance to get back out there sooner rather than later.

''All I can do from here is concentrate on getting back out there.

''I'll try to keep my fitness up and work as hard as possible, and hopefully work my way back into the side.''