Most want a bit of glory. A moment to really shine and the recognition that comes with it. But once the ego has had a taste and wants more, and the foundation isn’t fully set that is when the unstable foundation can start to crack.
Of course, this brings me to Quade Cooper. It is going back in the past. But you have to do that in life. A past left unlooked at turns into baggage, and baggage affects your present moment and future. If you can clear your past, that can set you free.
In 2010 and 2011 Cooper was at the peak of his powers. He was playing flamboyant rugby, and the Reds were able to build a team around him. His career and life were on a high, and his ego wanted more.
The mind is rarely content with the current reality, no matter how good it is. Its general behaviour is ‘I want more’ and Cooper’s ego was kicking in.
What better to do than taking on the legend Richie McCaw?
At first glance, it looks like an easy scalp. The best of the best and I’m going to bring him down with a bit of niggle. What the ego forgets is there is a consequence. The mind can be like the rebel without a cause, but there is a cause, and when the consequence comes in that is when the mind wants to run. It’s a very familiar pattern.
(AAP Image/Dave Hunt)
The Wallabies beat the All Blacks in Hong Kong in 2010 and Cooper pushed and taunted McCaw after the Wallabies scored their winning try. The student was engaging in a fight with the master. The student rarely beats the master. The fight had begun.
During the matches that followed, the fights between Cooper and McCaw continued. There was niggle and rivalry between the two. Added heat came in when Cooper kneed McCaw to the head. The judiciary let Cooper off, which only added more vitriol to the kiwi public. The Eden cauldron was been spiced up.
McCaw showed insight when he stated he was a little annoyed at himself for targeting Cooper on the field, straying away from his core tasks. Self-refection is a wise tool. You see the truth. You acknowledge it and then move forward, and do it without being hard on the self.
Cooper, on the other hand danced in the mayhem that was building. The rebel was yet to take the fall and so it continued to fight. Cooper said he enjoyed the situation. He said he didn’t mind the booing as well. His whole attitude was ‘bring it on.’ It’s generally not something you want to project out because life can reflect your desires.
At the Rugby World Cup 2011 in New Zealand, the reality came in for Cooper. The reality always comes in. It’s a good sign with where you’re at. It became too much for Cooper. The booing, the noise, the pressure and effectively Australia lost their playmaker.
He was a shadow of himself. The mind that placed him there now wanted to run – the rebel without a cause, but as I said earlier there is a cause.
Cooper’s final moment was a major knee injury. Interesting enough no one laid a hand on him. He almost did it to himself. The quest for it all came down, but that is where the mind can take you.
Cooper was only 23 at the time, highly gifted and up against the All Blacks, so some understanding of how he came to that mindset is needed. He has also matured since that time and has shown respect, growth, and humility.
So I have used him as an example of where the ego can take the person, but to give some balance, he’s still on the fringe of the Australian rugby team. He added boxing to his sporting repertoire, and still plays fine football, albeit nowhere near his prime prior to the Rugby World Cup 2011.
You can’t change the past but you can learn from it and clear it where you have no baggage but just wisdom obtained.
Perhaps that’s why Floyd Mayweather remains unbeaten. There’s no baggage in the ring. I understand he’s not perfect but I get the sense in the ring and at training, he plays it in the zone, free of the mind.
The ego returns to him in the rest of his life, but in that one component with his boxing, he shows mastery with true commitment and heart.
taylorman
Roar Guru
Oh yes Bos and Queenslanders definitely love NsW folks and vice versa don't they?
Xiedazhou
Guest
So McCaw didn't lash out with the boot in that very same match?
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
Reasonable point Hoy, cheap cowardly shots by a fellow countryman tend to focus ones mind ala bosleys nasty vitriol... Perhaps the others were generally one off shots designed to maim whereas QCs were more like a mosquito, ineffective but annoying as it happened more than once... .
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
Well respect is probably a rare commodity in your environment bosley....the general tone of your comments is nasty, and almost ruined my breakfast, but then as i dont give them any respect, i was able to continue..
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
C'mon the truth bosley, you dont go to the cricket cos you have no friends to go with.
Jibba Jabba
Roar Guru
Oh you of limited intelligence, Bosley, you are a nasty little man arent you ? .
Hoy
Roar Guru
I might be dead last here, but something that has occurred to me often in this saga... I think it really affected Richie McCaw as well. Not form or anything, but something about Cooper, really got under McCaw's skin. He admitted targeting him with his running, wrote about him in the book etc... but the unusual thing, and it has been raised here by a few people, is the amount of people I have seen target McCaw illegally, and attempt to brutalise him... and nothing bad about them... but Cooper did it, and it was the start of something. There must be something to it... Something really got to McCaw.
Hoy
Roar Guru
I actually don't think he played badly in the Quarter final... The All Blacks kicked to him, and he took them all, and got battered for it... but he took the kicks. He kicked out on the full off a kick off... Whoa! I saw Carter do that once as well... Elsom let the try in... why didn't Elsom cop blame for losing the game?
Jokerman
Roar Guru
Haha funny Alan! Well said...QC, self-reflection...!! The blood just boils eh...!!? Cheers, bro :)
Jokerman
Roar Guru
Ken, my response fell below...and peace too bro !
Jokerman
Roar Guru
Ken, admittedly eloquently put together by yourself, though let's be honest a few digs underneath the smiling surface. It reminded me slightly of how John Key would pitch injustice - the smiling assassin showing his perceived truth when it only serves his self-interest, at the expense of others. Not very sincere eh? It is not stubbornness that I present but a strong position of truth. Stubbornness is from the mind. The truth is from the heart. You don't really know the measure of that stuff, Ken so it's psychobabble in your eyes...you've never truly walked that path, hence you can only read up on it - which, in a way is someone else's theory. In a nutshell, Cooper went after the All Black captain and came off second best. That is what is hurting. That is the real issue here. The article was about McCaw, Cooper, and where their ego and heart took them and the consequences of that. The main response has been "but you booed" And yes we did, it is not being denied. But really..so be it eh? Relative, it's small stuff, and you just have to rise above it.
Alan
Guest
Ah what fun Jokerman! Two topics that are guaranteed to get a rise on "The Roar": QC and self reflection. In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king. 261 and counting. Well done!
Rhys Bosley
Guest
Yup, I'm quite happy to acknowledge that the Aussie cricket team and supporters can be woeful sports. I don't like cricket so don't attend, but if I did I would be embarrassed to call myself one of those fans.
Pinetree
Guest
Ken, how could you even suggest I would pull the other leg! Would I leave you without a leg to stand on? :)
Zero Gain
Guest
It seems to affect rugby and rugby crowds. And the roar.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Guest
Truth, Jokerman? I haven't read much 'truth' in the pink box today. Or in the initial 'article'. If stubbornness was a crime, your responses to critical, and mostly logical, posters, here, would put you in court. I don't want to be be too harsh because your delusion expressed publicly here signifies a tenuous hold on reality. And you may have frail mental health. Your certain tone suggests you are unable to consider alternate ways of looking at an issue. Also, you may mean well and honestly believe that you are sharing some sort of 'enlightenment'. Suffice to say, an opinion article is only as good as the point it makes through a logical process. Your point here? Cooper's ego? Can you weigh it? Or photograph it? The fact that your 'ego expose' employs ego-centric subjectivity seems lost on you. Your response to any criticism invariably includes an egoic self-justification as well. Your logical process? Psychobabble here. Psychobabble there. J'man, I would suggest that you may be living in a bubble looking out on a world through a silver fern-shaped lens. Fair enough. But there are other frames from which to view the world. And many more friends potentially outside of the booing mob. There is a bigger world out there, and many different ways of interpreting it. I hope you find it. I honestly do. Peace bro.
Ken Catchpole's Other Leg
Guest
RHS and Pintree, I have noted the silence on this issue from intelligent, mature and logical NZers. I have concluded that it must be extremely difficult culturally for NZers to break ranks. Thank you Pinetree. I hope that is your real name and you're not just pulling my leg?
Rhys Bosley
Guest
That would be the 2011 game the All Blacks lost, right?
Rhys Bosley
Guest
I've been here from Auckland for 29 years, have been to Wallabies tests against many teams and think New Zealanders are by far the worst rugby supporters to attend games in Australia. I've even gotten to the point where your son got, where I didn't want to go to games because I don't want to sit next to Kiwi idiots, who ruin an expensive night out. To say that Australia has the same problem is in my experience just incorrect, so I don't see why anyone has to acknowledge any such thing.
Jock Cornet
Guest
Qc never got over it, played crap ever since