Quade Cooper has been issued with a blunt warning to get his defensive act together or find himself on the Wallabies' bench.

With Australia's opponents increasingly sending traffic Cooper's way, and the five-eighth coming up with six misses at Twickenham on Saturday, Wallabies coach Robbie Deans is clearly losing patience with the No.10's defensive issues.

They include Cooper's attitude to the task, Deans admitted as he was forced to concede Australia had a major problem.

"There's no doubt we can't continue on with the sort of numbers that we got out of the weekend because we won't cope with that," Deans said.

That could mean Cooper being dumped from the starting line-up despite most of Australia's flamboyant new attacking rugby revolving around the 22-year-old.

"Hopefully it won't come to that, but who knows?" Deans said.

"He offers us a lot and he's been a big point of difference for us, but you've got to look at the game in its totality."

Asked if Cooper's problems were to do with technique or mentality, Deans appeared to question the attacking ace's attitude.

"It's both but the will is a big part of it," Deans said.

"You've got to want to do it or it won't matter what background or preparation you've got.

"If there's no will it just doesn't happen."

Deans said Cooper's deficiencies were sapping the players around him and he would only consider a "minder" for him - a forward who can cover his defensive role - as a "last resort".

"The better response would be for Quade to master it himself," Deans said.

"We do as much as we can in training but the reality is it's not 'til the rubber hits the road that you really find out."

Deans and co-selectors Jim Williams and David Nucifora want to see progress from Cooper this weekend against Italy, but the coach stressed his star was not the only culprit in the 35-18 loss to England.

"A lot of the detail would be addressed with the collective mentality, to be honest," Deans said.

"We were off the pace in terms of our intensity."

Dropping Cooper would mean shifting Matt Giteau back into five-eighth or promoting Berrick Barnes to the position.

Barnes said England's inside passing had caught the Australian defence unawares.

"They were pretty good at using those inside balls and that tested us in defence and how you want to turn up for each other on the inside," he said.

"(It) was a different sort of thing that we haven't come up against yet."

Cooper's problems will no doubt be of interest to NRL clubs, who live or die by defenders muscling up.

Cooper has expressed a desire to try his hand at rugby league and flirted with an offer from the Parramatta Eels earlier this year before signing on with Australian rugby for just 12 more months.

Ironically, he made his Test debut from the bench in Italy in 2008, scoring a memorable try.

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