I still looking where Richie has asked the crowd to boo QC (Quade Cooper), of course he wants the crowd on ABs side for fucks sake, it why teams like playing at home isn't it?? Can you remember when Suncorp was supposedly a fortress for Wallabies, because the crowd are close ,so can get stuck into either the opposition or cheering their team. Are any of you really stupid enough to think the players from either team are going to think they will influence how a good international player is going to play by him getting booed?? I have never seen it make a difference to a good player, and doubt I ever will. One of reasons I never bothered booing, because sure as shit if I thought it would help my team win I probably would, same as cheering them, that only helps the person doing cheering/booing enjoy themselves really. As Kieren Read said about playing at Ellis park, once you are playing it all only white noise, you don't really know who it's being directed at or whats been said. Funnily enough I was told that by my son when he was only about 9-10, he said even at that age you hardly heard what was being said because you busy playing and trying to do your job. Something confirmed by a ref, who never hears what is yelled at him.
Who do you think you're kidding - maybe fellow Kiwi posters here, but certainly not many others of us. That of course was precisely how the NZ crowds were calculating when they shamelessly. relentlessly, all of 80, booed QC (Quade Cooper), and his every touch of the ball, in RWC 2011.
That dark national neurosis was kicked off when they saw how threatening QC (Quade Cooper) was all of 2011 and began to contemplate the unthinkable that the boy from Tokoroa could return to dislocate the national sense of self for another four painful years. QC (Quade Cooper) then made the fatal mistake - the 'crime' of touching up HRH 'the embodiment of all that is good and that must never be sullied' - which then helpfully gave a sense of external legitimacy to the forthcoming acts of the dark side of the nation. QC (Quade Cooper) could be viciously harassed in the open, there was thank the heavens a good excuse to do it, and who better than HRH to provide it!
I've been to Auckland multiple times since 2011. This is remarkable: as soon as hotel staff, taxi drivers etc learn that I support the QLD Reds, many of them, quite sincerely and honestly, volunteer an apology to me regarding the way QC (Quade Cooper) was treated during the RWC, they say it was wrong, shouldn't have happened. So, this is
not my imagination.
Now when HRH this very week encourages the EP crowd to do it all over again, to say that he sinks in my estimation, and that such an invocation was beneath him, is an understatement. NZ will be a better country when such conduct, and the perceived need for it, is never seen or heard of again.