Quade Cooper's gran: If they boo, I'll get cross

Quade Cooper's grandmother Millie Cooper of Kaikohe.

Quade Cooper is the Wallaby Kiwis love to hate - but this Saturday at least one New Zealander will be cheering him on, his grandma, Millie.

In the last four years Cooper has been subject to much booing from All Blacks fans here and across the ditch and during the 2011 Rugby World Cup the first five-eighth was dubbed "public enemy number one" by fans and media alike.

Arrogance from Aussie players never goes down well here, but Cooper made the added mistake of targeting the saintly Richie McCaw, first in Hong Kong in 2010 and again in Brisbane a year later with a knee to the face.

Mrs Cooper was having none of the heckling that followed.

"I rang the news and said 'leave my grandson alone'."

She said Cooper, who moved to Australia from Tokoroa at 15, did not deserve the hate he got and said some of it was just sour grapes from Kiwi fans.

"That's not fair. They shifted over to Australia because there was no work here ... and fair enough if Australia has built him up to where he is."

As for arrogance, Mrs Cooper said those accusations against Cooper confused her.

"He's not a whakahihi [arrogant] boy, you know, he loves children and he loves the old people - he's got patience to be with young and old," she told the Herald in 2011.

Mrs Cooper said she did not experience any conflicting feelings about cheering against the All Blacks when they played the Wallabies.

"No, I go for my grandson."

Mrs Cooper, who lives up in the Far North in Kaikohe, said she has "the time but I haven't got the money" to see Cooper while he's over for the Eden Park test match this weekend.

Instead she will watch him play on TV and said she hopes people just "let bygones be bygones" and leave him be on Saturday night.

"I think they're over it now," she said.

"[But if they boo] I'd get cross because there'd be nothing I could do about it."
Mrs Cooper saw her grandson in June when he returned for the memorial of his grandfather, Nesbit, who died in 2006.

Cooper was very close to Nes and the rugby player, of Ngapuhi descent, has his grandfather's name tattooed on his left arm.

It was "always good" to see her moko, Mrs Cooper said, but they don't talk about the criticism.

"There's other important things, let bygones be bygones."