New Zealand Rugby
Haden's World Cup role safe
Scrum.com
May 31, 2010
 Martin Snedden, CEO of Rugby New Zealand 2011 Ltd, Murray McCully, Minister of the Rugby World Cup, Mike Miller, Managing Director of Rugby World Cup Limited and Jock Hobbs, Chairman of the New Zealand Rugby Union, stand with the Rugby World Cup after the announcement of the pool match venues for the Rugby World Cup 2011, Eden Park, Auckland, New Zealand, March 12, 2009
Murray McCully (second from left) joins other dignitaries to pose with the World Cup trophy © Getty Images
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Andy Haden's race-related claims against the Crusaders will not cost him his role as a Rugby World Cup ambassador, according to Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully.

Haden's role was called into question after he accused New Zealand's most successful Super 14 franchise of systematically limiting the number of Polynesian players in their ranks, or "darkies" as he called them, to three.

The former All Black's claims caused uproar and were hotly refuted by the franchise. Haden has refused to back down from his accusations but he at least apologised for his "darkies" comment on Sunday, a move which McCully admitted had saved his post. The minister added that Haden's sporting and business contacts, particularly in Australia, were also an important factor in Haden being retained.

"Look, some people are going to be happy, some people are going to be unhappy with the decision we have made," McCully said. "But if we were to take out everyone that made a mistake and shoot them, we would sooner or later run out of people to do things in this country. I think we have to accept that a mistake was made, it's been addressed by Mr Haden, and I'm satisfied to leave it there."

Haden is one of six World Cup ambassadors. The others are Jonah Lomu, Sean Fitzpatrick, John Kirwan, David Kirk and Andrew Mehrtens.

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