Haden stands by Crusaders' quota claims

Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder doesn't believe Andy Haden's comments are accurate. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Former All Blacks captain Andy Haden will meet with the Rugby World Cup Minister this weekend to discuss his comments about the Crusaders rugby franchise having a quota of non-white players.

A spokesman for World Cup Minister Murray McCully said the meeting would take place over the weekend but that the Minister had nothing to say on the matter.

The Minister was trying to get a copy of the transcript of Haden's interview with Deaker this morning.

In the interview, Haden said: "Once they've recruited three, that's it. That's their ceiling. Three darkies... no more," said Haden, who played 117 matches for the All Blacks between 1972-85 including 41 tests.

"In the Crusaders manual, there it is, it's enshrined in their articles, and they've stuck by that.

And they know damn well that that's the case. And it's worked."

Haden is not withdrawing the claims he made during a panel discussion on Sky TV's Deaker on Sport programme on Wednesday.

Crusaders management have strongly denied Haden's claims which also sparked a strong response from New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) chief executive Steve Tew.

Haden told Radio New Zealand this morning he had embellished what another former All Black skipper Chris Laidlaw had said in a recently published book.

An unrepentant Haden clarified he was not talking about the exclusion of Maori players from the Crusaders but about Pacific Island players and admitted that he had probably overstepped the mark by saying the policy was "in the manual and enshrined in their articles".

"Yes, (the policy) set in stone and ..., that's wrong but the principle remains and this is an issue for New Zealand rugby."

He said where this policy was most obvious was in the make-up of the Canterbury academy.

"A past All Black friend of mine was rung by a Canterbury coach and asked about a player and at the time he said to him, 'We can only have two or three (players of Pacific Island extraction) in our franchise and we want to integrate them slowly'.

"It is still going on - they want a franchise that has that flavour about it."

Tew yesterday questioned Haden's suitability as one of six World Cup ambassadors.

"The decision to employ those ambassadors was the minister's - those comments might make one reconsider that appropriateness."

Haden said this morning the issue he had raised had nothing to do with his World Cup role.

Crusaders chief executive Hamish Riach said Haden's claim were untrue.

"The whole damn thing is a fiction. It's completely untrue. I don't know what he is referring to. It's utterly untrue. It makes no sense to me," Riach told Radio Sport yesterday.

"Our mission statement doesn't say that. It's an extraordinary claim that isn't based on any fact. I hope the story stops here with this denial."

Crusaders coach Todd Blackadder told NewstalkZB he had been involved with the Crusaders a long time, and he had never seen any evidence Haden was right.

It was unfortunate the comments had been made because they brought the game into disrepute and hurt people and reputations, he said.

Blackadder said Haden should front up on his source if he was making such wild claims.

Haden has been invited to do so, but declined.

The Green Party's sport spokesman Kevin Hague said Haden has been dismissive of non-white players in the past and has called for Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully to sack him from his role as an ambassador for the 2011 World Cup.

"Andy Haden was a poor choice for a rugby 2011 ambassador due to his organisation of the 1986 Cavaliers tour of South Africa - at the height of South Africa's apartheid era," he said.

Mr Hague said Haden had more recently been dismissive of the significance of apologies from rugby officials in both South Africa and New Zealand over the past treatment of Maori players blocked from touring South Africa.

"If you think about who we want as ambassadors, we don't want people who will bring New Zealand into international disrepute, and that's what Andy Haden will do," Mr Hague said.

The Crusaders team, beaten in the Super 14 semifinals by the Bulls last weekend, included Pacific Islanders Kahn Fotuali'i, Robbie Fruean and Ti'i Paulo.