Letters reveal depth of ill-will

By WYNNE GRAY

The New Zealand Rugby Union is trying to revive a transtasman World Cup partnership it slammed as unworkable seven months ago.

The conflict got so bad in October that New Zealand asked International Rugby Board chairman Vernon Pugh, a man later slated by the NZRFU, to resolve the impasse.

In a burst of letters to Mr Pugh at the time, Rugby Union chief executive David Rutherford accused Australia of generating the breakdown in agreements.

He said World Cup discussions between New Zealand and Australia had disintegrated so badly there was little point in looking to resuscitate the relationship.

"In attempting to resolve the issue, reluctantly we have come to the conclusion that we have continuously been faced with misinformation and mischief-making on the part of the ARU management," he wrote.

After attacking Australia in that letter and asking for Mr Pugh's help, Mr Rutherford and NZRFU chairman Murray McCaw last month turned on the IRB chairman.

"You can't have someone who's a town planning QC running a global sport, let alone trying to run what is commonly referred to as the third or fourth biggest sporting event in the world," Mr McCaw said after the NZRFU missed the March 8 deadline for signing the sub-host agreement.

NZRFU councillors Rob Fisher and Tim Greeson leave in the next few days to present New Zealand's case to the IRB for reinstatement as a sub-host to Australia for the tournament.

It is understood that Mr Rutherford and Mr McCaw will travel to the meeting in Dublin to provide support.

It has been implied in New Zealand rugby circles that Australia courted the IRB very heavily during the World Cup agreement disputes and undermined the NZRFU.

But Mr Rutherford's correspondence to Mr Pugh shows the depth of New Zealand's bitterness towards Australia last year and the extent of the collapse in the transtasman alliance. In one part, he talks about "why our board has lost confidence in ARU management".

At next week's meeting in Dublin, the NZRFU wants the IRB to order a resurrection of the relationship so the pair can share the 48-game tournament.

Mr Rutherford said his board last year had been troubled about the financial aspects of being a World Cup sub-host to Australia.

It wondered if it was good for the international game for Australia to make an A$40 million ($48.5 million) profit and New Zealand an A$5.6 million ($6.79 million) loss.

He told Mr Pugh then that the NZRFU was concerned about the "paternalism" shown by the ARU during World Cup discussions.

Given an "approach (that can only be driven by greed) being taken by ARU management, the NZRFU board does not believe there is any point in continuing further negotiations with the ARU ... "