Kiwi fans a little too keen

KIWI fans have been accused of a lack of sportsmanship when it comes to their treatment of Australian rugby rivals at the Rugby World Cup.

Early on in the tournament, some Wallabies' supporters complained about heckling which went beyond friendly rivalry, and on Friday some took exception to the cheers which went up at Eden Park as Quade Cooper was helped off the field with a knee injury 20 minutes into the game.

Dan Heathwood of Brisbane, from the Golden Suits supporters' group, said he had been to most of the Australian pool games and had returned for the bronze final.

He was struck by the number of New Zealanders who suddenly became Irish or Welsh when those nations were playing the Wallabies, but was really irked by the way sections of the crowd cheered at Cooper's injury.

"The people behind me were really having a go at Quade when he was going off injured.

"That's not what rugby's about - it's about playing hard, then shaking hands afterwards. If you haven't got that, you might as well play soccer," he said.

Mr Heathwood said there was nothing wrong with rivalry, "but there's no need to cheer someone off injured".

He was accompanied by Janick Allamand from Switzerland, who was watching her first game of rugby, in what Mr Heathwood said was an example of the way the World Cup was opening up the game to a completely new audience.

Ms Allamand said she enjoyed the physicality of the game, the low level of commercialism compared with soccer, and the fact it was rough on the field but not off.

The world really did come to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup finals, with hundreds of reporters from every corner of the rugby-playing world - and quite a few from places where the game is barely known. Friday night's bronze final was attended by 341 reporters and 151 photographers, most of them from newspaper sport departments.

The best represented countries were New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Japan and Argentina, with a large contingent from Uruguay and a smattering from nations such as Sweden, Hungary, Serbia, Hungary and China. The smallest country represented was the tiny European principality of Andorra, in the mountains between Spain and France, which fielded two reporters.

In a close fought match, Australia just headed off Wales 21-18 at Eden Park on Friday night to take out third place in the tournament.