National bosses will keep jobs

Under-fire members of the New Zealand Rugby Football Union will keep their positions by default.

Chairman Murray McCaw and board member Rob Fisher, both key figures in the possible loss of New Zealand's World Cup co-hosting status, will be confirmed in their position unopposed at the annual meeting next month.

They were the only nominations for their respective central zone and northern zone positions.

The reappointments on April 9 will probably ensure no fallout from their role in the World Cup controversy if Australia is named sole host at the International Rugby Board meeting in Dublin three days later.

McCaw said he had sensed no feeling of animosity at the way the NZRFU had handled the affair from either provincial unions or the public.

"Walking down the street, I've had phenomenal experiences in terms of people coming up and saying 'hey, you're doing all right'," he said.

"There are some sections of media who say we've done wrong, but there are lots and lots of ordinary New Zealanders out there who actually back what we've been doing."

Unsourced reports have said McCaw and NZRFU chief executive David Rutherford would need to apologise or even stand down if New Zealand was to have a chance of getting co-host status.

"I've read that in the media and I understand that call hasn't been made," McCaw said.

"Even if it was, I have absolutely no difficulty with the approach that we've taken to ensure the financial viability of the World Cup in New Zealand.

"No one's going to run a competition in New Zealand where there is the potential to lose a lot of money."

McCaw and Rutherford publicly criticised the IRB, Rugby World Cup Ltd and the chairman of both, Welshman Vernon Pugh, following RWCL's decision to decline the NZRFU's amendments to the sub-host agreement on March 8.

McCaw defended the critical comments as appropriate, given the changing demands in the sub-host agreement since November last year and a statement from the IRB spokesman, Chris Rea, on March 8 that New Zealand had been "stripped" of its co-host status.

"That was one of a whole series of mischievous information and leaks that had come from a variety of sources that we don't know for sure," McCaw said.

"As a board we were faced with a difficult situation in that we were being asked to sign a document that we'd only had five days to look at. That was against the law of New Zealand, frankly."

The NZRFU was to continue working towards the Dublin meeting as its only chance to be granted sub-host status for the cup.

It hoped to convince the IRB that it could carry out some more of the commercial demands needed to host the tournament, although providing 100 per cent empty corporate boxes and lounge suites remained a virtual impossibility.

"People are quite erroneously saying that we could not deliver an advertising-free stadium," McCaw said.

"That is wrong; we could deliver all that stuff. What we couldn't deliver was 100 per cent of boxes and corporate suites because the owners of those boxes and suites have a contract with the stadiums. We are not party to those contracts, therefore we can't force anyone to do anything.

"If you go back and look at the way the various contracts were put in place, up until late November there was no requirement for 100 per cent boxes and suites."

Until that point, McCaw said the NZRFU had agreed with Pugh that they would not have to deliver those aspects 100 per cent.

A subsequent sub-host agreement was signed by the NZRFU and Australian Rugby Union on December 21, but was rejected a month later by the RWCL.

- NZPA