Hot property Quade Cooper has been challenged to celebrate his 20th birthday on Saturday by showing the one thing that's evaded him in his highly-promising, short career - consistency.

Cooper will make his 10th start for the Reds against the Cheetahs in Bloemfontein and already has good judges talking up the talented five-eighth as a future Wallabies star.

As well as the Australian Rugby Union, the New Zealand product's ability has captured the attention of at least two NRL teams, the Wellington Hurricanes and other overseas rugby clubs.

Cooper's stand-out performances in the 40-8 upset of the Bulls and last week's respectable 22-10 loss to the Sharks highlighted his quality running, passing and kicking game.

In between was a forgettable night in the 24-24 draw with the Lions, bringing back memories of the bloopers from his debut season in 2007 under Eddie Jones.

Cooper often showed both his best and worst in single games under Jones who brought him to tears in one monumental post-match spray following a close loss to the Chiefs at Suncorp Stadium.

New coach Phil Mooney's style appears to agree better with the more-mature playmaker who is currently rated ahead of friend and former Australian Schoolboys teammate Kurtley Beale.

The Reds want Cooper, revelling in playing alongside Berrick Barnes, to back up arguably his best game to date against the Sharks with another strong showing against the Cheetahs.

"That's the challenge we've set him, to do it consistently well," Mooney said from Bloemfontein.

"He played very well against the Bulls, the Lions were a bit iffy and then very good against the sharks.

"He's aware of that and you can't forget the fact he's 19 and turns 20 on game day.

"He's a 19-year-old with a dozen Super rugby games under his belt and we're asking him to be our playmaker."

Born and bred in the Waikato, Cooper is between managers at the moment but the Reds and ARU are taking a proactive approach, especially in the wake of league and NZ interest.

"I'd be very surprised if he went there (to NZ)," Mooney said.

"He's forging a pretty successful career for himself over here in Australia so I'd very surprised if the ARU let a kid with his ability go to NZ.

"With him and Berrick we've got two long-term international players there."

The Reds have been boosted by the return of skipper and halfback Sam Cordingley (calf) for the round eight encounter they need to win to keep play-off hopes alive.

Cordingley is one of a majority of Reds coming off contract this season and is due to show his hand in the coming week.

The World Cup tourist is weighing up an offer in France but with the 32-year-old arguably the leading No.9 in the country Queensland are hopeful his Test prospects will help keep him in Brisbane.

The Reds unveiled an impressive back-up in former five-eighth Ben Lucas, 21, against the Sharks, showing the future is looking brighter at Ballymore.

"The pleasing thing for me last week was that you had Benny Lucas playing his fifth game of halfback in his run-on debut, a 19-year-old No.10 (Cooper) and a 21-year-old (Barnes) who's played just half a dozen games at 12," Mooney said.

"Right there was potentially the future of Queensland and Australian rugby."

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