Long faces from the men in black

From the gloom, mutterings are heard about building bridges. BRONWYN SELL reports.

In a study in Dublin's Clarence Hotel, New Zealand's rugby heavyweights look like men in mourning.

NZ Rugby Football Union chairman Murray McCaw and chief executive David Rutherford wear black suits, grey shirts, black ties - and very grim faces.

Rutherford says the last week - in which they fought for and soundly lost the right to co-host the 2003 Rugby World Cup - sometimes felt like a matter of life and death. Like ka mate, ka mate, ka ora, ka ora. "It's sort of been like living in a haka for the last little while. There are battles sometimes you don't win."

McCaw says he knew the New Zealand delegates to the International Rugby Board had only the slimmest chance of defeating the Australian bid, but his initial reaction to the vote has to be an understatement: "We're quite disappointed."

Both men seem exhausted and resigned to defeat. There will be no attempt at legal redress. "Simply, money appears to have won the day," says McCaw.

Says Rutherford: "It's been a hard battle. Now we've lost this game that we've just played, time to get on with it, time to build the bridges."

McCaw and Rutherford play down any bad feelings. McCaw says he understands why Australia took the steps it did.

On the other side of town, later in the afternoon, Australian Rugby Union chief executive John O'Neill also speaks of conciliation - but not before he gets in a good dig about his boardroom opponents. It is obvious the "wounds" - to use the IRB's word - are still raw.

"They were the masters of their own destiny," says O'Neill.

"The fans, spectators and the normal rugby players in New Zealand should ask some hard questions of those that were responsible for where we've really ended up today.

"We didn't manufacture this - I wish I was that smart.

"There's a governing body of rugby in New Zealand which is accountable and responsible."

However, McCaw says he has no regrets and is accepting no responsibility.

"At the end of the day we couldn't afford to take the financial risk because we didn't have the support to do it ... Any reasonable person would have taken those decisions at that time."

He believes the NZRFU did its best for its rugby-playing public, although its team might have "made some comments that were interpreted differently to how they might have been meant".

"I can lie straight in bed. We've been honest through this whole process," McCaw says.

"Our integrity - of the whole board of New Zealand rugby - is intact."

McCaw doubts New Zealand could have changed the outcome by approaching the bid differently.

O'Neill says New Zealand's stance that money has made the decision is "not a valid claim".

"It was very much a decision about rugby," he begins. But then he pauses and adds, "and finance - the two aren't mutually exclusive. There's got to be a reality check here."

The IRB chose not to act as referee.

It issued an uncharacteristically strong statement - "There is little doubt that relationships have been damaged as a result of these unhappy events" - then retreated into silence.

McCaw says he does not know what kind of reception to expect when he arrives home tomorrow - on board the same flight that will drop O'Neill off to a far warmer welcome in Australia.

O'Neill says the boardroom battles over the World Cup will only intensify those on the field next year. "No doubt [the All Blacks'] desire to win it will be even greater now."

The IRB statement

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