Sharples appalled at claim Maori told to throw Springbok game

Dr Pita Sharples had previously labelled the NZRU 'arrogant' for not apologising over the exclusion of Maori players from Springbok tours. File photo / Steven McNicholl

Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says he is shocked and appalled at allegations that then Maori affairs minister Ernest Corbett told the 1956 Maori All Blacks they must not beat the Springboks.

Maori All Black fullback Muru Walters, now an Anglican bishop in Otaki, said Mr Corbett visited the team in their Eden Park dressing-room and told them if they won the All Blacks would never be invited back to South Africa.

The destructive message "ripped the guts out of the spirits of our team", he told Radio Waatea. Expected to test the Springboks, they lost 37-0.

Following recent calls for the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) to apologise to Maori players excluded from a tour of South Africa, Bishop Walters said it was the Government who should apologise.

Mr Corbett, who died in 1968, told the side they had to lose, he said.

"What he said was you must not win this game or we will never be invited to South Africa again," Bishop Walters told Radio Waatea host Willie Jackson.

"I thought he was joking, but then another official came in and said the same thing...for the future of rugby, don't beat the South Africans.

"That was a pretty destructive message, actually...and it ripped the guts out of our spirits of our team."

The tame defeat in front of an expectant crowd estimated at 61,000 subjected the side to ridicule, in a year when the All Blacks beat the Springboks in a series for the first time.

Four years later an all-white New Zealand team toured South Africa, where they were soundly beaten.

Dr Sharples said it was the first time he had heard such allegations.

"I understand Bishop Walters intends to approach me and I look forward to hearing more details," he said.

Dr Sharples previously labelled the NZRU arrogant for refusing to apologise to former Maori players for excluding them from past tours to South Africa on racial grounds.

Meanwhile, The Press reported today that Tiny Hill, who played lock for the Maori All Blacks against the 1956 Springboks and No 8 in the test series, denied Mr Corbett made his speech or was even sighted before the match.

"As far as I was concerned, Ernie Corbett was never in the dressing room at all, because I know him and I come from Taranaki. I don't remember him being there."

The South African government's apartheid regime of segregation was in force from 1948 to 1994. Maori players were excluded from All Black tours in 1928, 1949 and 1960.

NZRU Maori Board chairman Wayne Peters has said the NZRU board considered the matter twice. It decided in the centenary year of Maori rugby it was better to focus on celebrations rather than political issues from the past.

- NZPA