Fisher challenges IRB statement

New Zealand's delegate to rugby's ruling body speaks out. WYNNE GRAY reports.

New Zealand delegate Rob Fisher has broken his silence about the World Cup showdown to criticise a statement from his International Rugby Board fellow directors.

Soon after that rift became public yesterday, New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive David Rutherford declared that his organisation had offered the IRB ideas about resolving the dispute between the two groups.

While both NZRFU members made brief utterances, neither would expand on their mysterious statements.

The bizarre flurry of correspondence yesterday began with the release of a four-page statement from the directors of Rugby World Cup Ltd.

"Following the meeting of RWCL on Tuesday, it was decided to set the record straight concerning a number of inaccurate reports and statements covering the failure satisfactorily to conclude the sub-host union agreement," it said,

The statement continued to go through a sequence of dates and events since Australia and New Zealand launched their bid for the World Cup through until March 8 this year, when the NZRFU declined to accept the terms as sub-host.

Several hours later, Fisher, who has said little in public since March 8, trundled out his statement. He "disassociated himself from some of the comments in the most recent statement from the directors of the company."

"Last week my name was not listed on the press release issued by three of the other directors because I had not seen it until the following morning [New Zealand time]," he added.

"On that occasion I had no issue with the release and neither did the NZRFU, which put out its statement noting its and my agreement to its contents.

"On this occasion, however, I believe there are some inaccuracies and omissions from the chronology of the RWCL statement that need to be clarified. Until that is done I will make no further comment."

Fisher could not be reached for specifics. However, given NZRFU utterances, Fisher would probably dispute the RWCL time-line which said New Zealand understood the definition of clean stadiums in April 1999 and also then understood the other terms for hosting the World Cup.

Nearly two hours after Fisher's brief press release, an even shorter memo was released by Rutherford, saying the NZRFU had approached the IRB yesterday with a proposal to fix the problems.

* Late last night, it was alleged NZRFU chairman Murray McCaw had apologised to IRB chairman Vernon Pugh at their meeting in Beijing last weekend. McCaw had declined to disclose details of their meeting.

According to an NZPA report, McCaw apologised for attacking Pugh verbally when the offer to sub-host the tournament was withdrawn.