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AB legend slams RWC review

Sunday 20th April 2008

Haden: 'Our excuses are delivered with arrogance'

Former All Black lock Andy Haden has dismissed the New Zealand Rugby Union's (NZRU) review of the 2007 World Cup campaign as "a complete and total waste of time".

A review paper was released last week after a process led by Auckland lawyer Mike Heron and Don Tricker of Sport and Recreation NZ (SPARC), the country's government-funded sports administrators.

New Zealand were knocked out of the tournament by France in Cardiff, with the review concluding that "factors outside the control of the All Blacks contributed to the loss of the quarter-final".

The 47-page review noted: "The performance of the referee and touch judges had a significant adverse impact on the All Blacks. An unusual combination of injuries was also a critical contributor.

"The officials, the combination of injuries, along with the performance of the French placed huge pressure on the All Blacks leadership model.

"The leadership model failed to deliver what was its most important objective - decisions which give the best chance of winning the game. The team failed to ensure that the right decisions were taken at critical moments."

Given the supposed evidence of a failure of leadership, Haden questioned why the NZRU decided to retain Graham Henry as coach and Richie McCaw as captain.

"I think it was a complete and total waste of time," he told The Sunday Star-Times.

"The rugby union have probably worked hard to get it as far under the carpet as they can.

"There's a hell of a lot of stuff that I think is radically wrong, and not giving [Crusaders and new Australia boss Robbie] Deans the job is something that was indicative.

"These guys screwed it up and someone had to carry the can. You can't blame your captain and then say 'oh, but he's a great captain'.

"That's only a symptom of what went wrong, and they should never have been in that position."

The 57-year-old believes the review made the organisation appear "arrogant".

He said: "We look terribly arrogant in so many ways.

"Our apologies look to be delivered with arrogance, our excuses are delivered with arrogance. I just think if as an organisation we at least looked contrite it would help.

"You can say we have apologised to our fans, but you can't say that with a smirk on your face. It doesn't ring true. That's sad."