New Zealand must really loathe Wallabies out half Quade Cooper. His bitterly disappointing Rugby World Cup ended with another low this morning with a potentially serious knee injury, but there was precious little sympathy from the Eden Park crowd.
Cooper is New Zealand-born but he’s become a pantomime hate figure during this tournament, culminating in last weekend’s dire display in the All Blacks’ straightforward semi-final win over their old rivals.
He looked more like his confident, adventurous self in the opening quarter of today’s Bronze Medal match against Wales, but he crumpled to the deck after his right knee buckled beneath him.
The Queensland Reds star was able to walk from the field but the rather stadium public address director opted, rather unsympathetically, to blare “Sweet Caroline” over the speakers.
And we were treated to the revealing vista of New Zealand’s public enemy number one limping from the field while thousands of supporters sang “Good times never seemed so good.”
Lovely.
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