It got worse after the Irish defeat with Cooper having a shocker in the narrow quarter-final victory over South Africa, while he will want to forget about his display in the last four clash with the All Blacks.
His tweets were hardly top drawer, either.
England
Having won the tournament in 2003 and featured in the 2007 final, this tournament will not be one English rugby fans will remember for the right reasons.
Yes, England negotiated a tough pool containing hard-nosed outfits such as Scotland, Argentina and Georgia but their style of play hardly set the world alight and they were dumped out of the tournament by a fired-up France.
But they made more headlines for the way they played off the field. It started with the dwarf-throwing and Mike Tindall shenanigans in Queenstown and moved onto the bizarre ball-switching fiasco against Romania and skipper Lewis Moody's fine for wearing a branded mouthguard in the defeat to France.
With England's World Cup already sunk, Manu Tuilagi decided to jump ship, literally. The Leicester centre was arrested after jumping off a ferry at the Viaduct but escaped with a fine.
Fiji
After their superb display at the 2007 tournament in France, Fiji failed to live up to expectations and endured a torrid campaign in New Zealand.
They dumped Wales out of the previous tournament and gave eventual winners South Africa an almighty scare in the quarter-final before their challenge wilted in the final 15 minutes, and many expected them to repeat their giant-killing exploits.
With a team littered with attacking talent in the form of former Clermont winger Naipolioni Nalaga, Racing Metro's Albert Vuivuli and Toulon speedster Gaby Lovobalavu, Fiji had a right to feel confident.
But their tournament was a shambles. They suffered a 49-3 thrashing at the hands of South Africa and were outclassed by Samoa 27-7. Wales crushed them 66-0 to end what was a hugely disappointing tournament.
Referees
Every World Cup has its fare share of controversy and a few suspect referring decisions are par for the course, yet Rugby World Cup 2011 may be remembered as the most controversial tournament so far.
There was James Hook's disallowed penalty kick against South Africa which proved costly to the Welsh cause. Nigel Owens made several questionable calls during the Springboks' 13-5 victory over Samoa which prompted Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu's twitter crusade against the IRB.
Alain Rolland will forever be remembered in Wales as the man who sent off their captain in the World Cup semifinal while Bryce Lawrence will have few friends left in South Africa after his adjudication of the breakdown in Australia's 11-9 victory over the Springboks.
Jonny Wilkinson (England)
The star of England's World Cup 2003 triumph in Australia and a rock during his country's unprecedented journey to the 2007 final, Jonny Wilkinson was dismal in New Zealand.
He struggled when kicking for goal - he was once the most reliable goalkicker in the world _ and missed five penalty attempts in the 13-9 defeat of Argentina in Dunedin's roofed stadium.
Wilkinson was left out of the squad against Georgia, but returned in the 67-3 rout of Romania. He helped his team to a tense 16-12 victory over Scotland but he endured an unhappy night in the 19-12 defeat to France and was eventually substituted in the 65th minute. A tournament to forget.
