Tew blasts O’Brien’s ‘bully’ allegations

NEW Zealand Rugby Union chief executive Steve Tew has fired back at Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien’s claims that the All Blacks “bully” Samoan rugby.

O’Brien said this week that he was using his influence to help Samoa retain its players.

“I hate bullies, and New Zealand bullies the islands,” O’Brien was quoted as saying, and after meeting Samoa’s Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, O’Brien said he planned to create a fund large enough to ensure the country’s top 40 players did not have to leave.

Tew said he welcomed any financial support for Samoan rugby, but was agitated by allegations of bullying or stealing players. “If his comments have been reported accurately, they are very disappointing and we reject them utterly. They’re just not factually correct.

“If anyone wants to sit back and analyse what we’ve done to help Pacific Island rugby and, in particular, Samoan rugby we would stand proudly behind our record.”

Tew said statistics made a mockery of the assertion that New Zealand rugby “pinched” Samoan players.

They showed the flow of players at the top level went in the opposite direction. Figures from 2005 to 2007 show that 51 players who represented Samoa at test level played their first class or club rugby in New Zealand. During the same period only nine Samoan-born players represented the All Blacks and one, Jerome Kaino, was from American Samoa.

He noted that of the 2007 Samoan World Cup squad, 12 players were born in New Zealand and six others spent the majority of their careers playing here. “Particularly in the case of Samoans, there is a very deep historical migration and it dates back two or three generations.

“Mils Muliaina was born in Invercargill, for goodness sake.”