A player in the 1956 New Zealand Maori team claimed on Monday that a government minister told them to lose a match against the Springboks to prevent All Blacks sides being barred from South Africa.
Muru Walters, the fullback in the 1956 team who is now an Anglican bishop, said then-New Zealand Minister of Maori Affairs Ernest Corbett visited the Maori side in its dressing room before the match and told the players they should lose “for the future of rugby.”
Corbett, who died in 1968, purportedly said the All Blacks may otherwise never be invited back to South Africa.
The Maori team was expected to test the Springboks — who went on to lose a four-Test series against the All Blacks — but was beaten 37-0 in front of a crowd of 61,000 at Eden Park in Auckland. The team was later widely ridiculed for its performance.
Walters said in a radio interview on Monday that Corbett’s instruction had “ripped the guts out of the spirits of our team. What he said was: ‘You must not win this game or we will never be invited to South Africa again,’”
“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,’” he said.
Walters’ claims comes as New Zealand celebrates the centenary of the formation of the first Maori team and after a refusal by the New Zealand Rugby Union to apologize to indigenous Maori for excluding them from All Blacks teams that toured South Africa in 1928, 1949 and 1960.
In those years, New Zealand rugby bowed to South African demands to omit colored players from national teams to tour South Africa.
Current New Zealand Minister of Maori Affairs, Pita Sharples, has described as “arrogant” the New Zealand union’s failure to offer an apology to Maori players who were excluded from South African tours.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to