RedsHappy
Tony Shaw (54)
Unfortunately, despite denials, cooper can't cope with the hate- and it's not going to go away, specially next weekend
Forget about Mark Reason. He is a tool. So is Zavos. Find conversation about which hemisphere has the bigger w@nker journos bit pointless. they are all desperate attention seekers
That's likely true on all the evidence. But there's also evidence to confirm that this appalling Kiwi crowd behaviour - the relentless desire to undermine a fine player allegedly for 'offences' against their national treasure but really a vicious, unsporting desire to undermine a clear and present threat to their team - is now a symptom not of a love of rugby, but of pathetic cultural neurosis that associates a winning of a RWC as confirmation of a fragile national identity.
What is taking place against Cooper is in fact the ultimate cheap shot in a sport. It being obsessively repeated and has as its end the destruction of a player's will and confidence by means that have nothing to with playing capability or the AB's own skills.
Whatever Cooper's individual failings, this display cheapens NZ in many Australian eyes. Australian society has been exceptionally accommodating of many tens of thousands of Kiwis' unrelenting desire to leave their own country for better provision here. So I for one deeply resent what is taking place against Cooper at this RWC.