Opposites attract as they say, but there'll be no love lost between straight-laced David Pocock and mischief-making school-mate Quade Cooper at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

Two of Australian rugby's brightest young-guns will be out to make life hell for each other when Queensland look to settle old scores against the Western Force.

Force openside flanker Pocock has set his sights on bringing down the elusive Reds five-eighth and Cooper knows the Zimbabwe-born tyro has a major advantage.

In an interstate grudge match full of mouth-watering individual battles, some with major Test selection ramifications, it's the Blue 7 v Red 10 which looms as the most interesting.

The close friends played three seasons of rugby together in underage representative sides and for the Churchie First XV before Pocock headed west in late 2005 at 17.

"I'm used to him looking after me on the field and saving my butt in defence but now it's all reverse," Cooper told AAP.

"He'll be after me tomorrow, I just have to run away from the big fellow."

But Cooper, three weeks older than Pocock, admitted it would be easier said than done, believing the rising flanker knew where the slippery playmaker would step before he did himself.

"That's definitely true, playing with him he seemed to have a fair idea what I was going to do," he said.

"He'd just follow me but even I didn't know what I'd do.

"We got to know each other pretty well playing at schoolboys, if anybody knows my game he does."

Although cut from different cloths, both regard the other as a "top bloke".

"He is," Pocock said of Cooper, "pretty mischievous but it's all good fun".

Waikato born and raised, Cooper, who started at Churchie at Year 11 with Pocock a senior, confirmed the truth.

"He kept me on the right path," he said. "He looked out for me both on and off field. He was the enforcer at our school.

"He's a very strong person and very strong about his morals."

Pocock - rated as the long-term Wallabies successor to George Smith - knows it's his assignment to haunt Cooper tomorrow night, which would go a long way to keeping the Force's finals hopes alive.

"That's one of the jobs of the No.7, having played with him a bit helps a bit but he's pretty elusive so hopefully I'll get him a good one," he said.

"I'm not sure if he knows what he's doing half the time but he usually pulls it off. It will be interesting and I'm looking forward to playing him."

Pocock is one of three former Queenslanders, along with Tom Hockings and James O'Connor, the Reds will negotiate with post-match in the hope to lure them home.

The Force's 38-3 thumping in Perth last year still haunts the Reds but Pocock well remembers how Cooper still cut loose in a battered team, stepping through almost half the team with one run.

The result is one which Queensland rates almost as humiliating as their 92-3 loss to the Bulls.

Cooper said their 40-8 upset of the Bulls in their last home match had given extra confidence for another cold dish of revenge and their first Australian derby triumph in two years.

"That loss we had last year to the Bulls ripped our whole team's heart out," he said.

"We managed to get that back and give them a hiding at Suncorp so hopefully we can use that motivation again and take the Force down."

Brought to you by AAP © 2024 AAP