World Cup 2010 Comment: England fans need Wayne Rooney too much to let lovers' tiff come between them

By Wayne Veysey | Chief correspondent

The romance between Wayne Rooney and England fans shows no signs of a premature break-up.

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England’s talisman gave the long-suffering supporters every opportunity to ditch him, cut up his finest threads and aim a few choice words back in the direction from where they came following Friday’s mean-eyed rant into the television camera.

But the love affair between the player widely acclaimed as the last of the street footballers and the travelling supporters who inevitably turned Port Elizabeth’s Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium into a mini-Wembley (appalling pitch et al) is as alive and kicking as England’s World Cup campaign.

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When Croxteth’s finest's name was read out before kick-off, the cheering from the massed red-and-white congregation was comfortably noisy enough to drown out the vuvuzelas that were in noticeably, and thankfully, shorter supply today.

Each neat Rooney contribution against the limited but disciplined Slovenians was greeted like a match-clinching thunderbolt at a packed Old Trafford.

Even the occasional clumsy touch or scuffed pass was immediately forgiven with furious applause and an exhortation to keep on going.

Had the Manchester United man succeeded in converting Frank Lampard’s delicious second-half pass when he had only the Slovenian keeper Samir Handanovic to beat and not scuffed his finish on to the post, the acclaim would have been heard in Bloemfontein, where England will face their next date with destiny on Sunday.

After witnessing Rooney’s outpouring of frustration in Cape Town, the England fans knew he needed tender loving care and careful handling.

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If a shoulder to cry on, some soothing words and exaggerated acclaim was what was required to nurse the player back to full health, then England worshippers were more than prepared to provide it.

Anything, it seems, to restore the surprisingly fragile confidence of a player who, only two months ago, had gathered end-of-season awards like Raymond Domenech finds footballing enemies.

Of course, it was a far from vintage Rooney performance. Even the acolytes, minders and endless flunkies who surround the Premier League Player of the Year would have recognised that.

Despite some penetrative link-up play with fellow scouser Steven Gerrard, greater energy and evidence that his touch was not completely lost that Champions League quarter-final night in Munich when his till-then glorious season was halted by an ankle injury, Fabio Capello still substituted Rooney for Joe Cole with 18 minutes to go.

The response from the England fans was as if the team’s prize asset had delivered a personal tour de force rather than a merely encouraging display.

There was a hint of a limp as the 24-year-old, totally ignored by Capello when he reached the touchline, wandered off to the bench but it would have surely been unthinkable for even a Rooney operating at 80 per cent of his full capacity to have been substituted before the tournament began.

The England fans are not stupid. They know their main man has suffered an inexplicable confidence drought and they know that the team have no chance of making anything other than a fleeting impression on this tournament if he does not return to something like his best form.

And they know, too, that for all Rooney’s foibles, he cares passionately about England and about succeeding on the sport’s biggest stage.

That, and his A-list talent, make even the occasional temper tantrum, however menacing, worth forgiving.

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