Haden stays on-side with rugby union

Press, 7 September 1984, Page 32

Haden stays on-side with rugby union

By

JOHN BROOKS

The sporting equivalent of the Tolpuddle Martyrs, Andy Haden, yesterday won a significant victory for the game he loves, rugby, and for the men who play it at the top level.

The New Zealand Rugby Union’s council gained immeasurably in stature by absolving the giant Auckland lock forward from suspicions of professionalism. There were more heads than Haden’s on the block, and the damaging effect on the morale of the country’s top players would have been far reaching if the council had decided to impose a suspension. Haden has unashamedly taken the leading role in attempting to improve players’ rights, and he has been brave enough to take on the establishment to this end. As a long standing and much travelled All Black — he has played for New Zealand in nine consecutive years and sampled the club atmosphere in Britain, France and Italy — Haden has had plenty of opportunities to contrast the deal New Zealand players have with the rewards received by their overseas contemporaries. In doing so he has often sailed close to the wind, but always gave the impression that he knew just how far to go. The decision of the council to summon him to Wellington to answer charges caused gloom and contusion among the many children who idolise him, and anger among the Auckland players he has led into a winning

position in the national first division championship. The Auckland Rugby Union threw its not inconsiderable weight behind Haden by supporting a motion of confidence in him this week. Haden mourned the loss to the amateur game of his former captain, Graham MOurie, who declared himself a professional because he decided to accept the royalties from his book, “Graham Mourie, Captain.” In his long-running column in the “New Zealand Times” Haden has chipped away at the New Zealand union, taking risks knowingly because he felt All Blacks were years behind overseas players and, indeed, national representatives in some other winter codes. But although the lofty Aucklander might well have been sent, to the stake by the council, if it had

adhered as strictly to its rules as did the Irish referee did to the rugby laws in controlling, or suffocating, the third international between the All Blacks and the Wallabies in Sydney last month, the effect on the game in this country would have been disastrous.

Coming on top of an unfortunate spate of spinal injuries to players, and the healthy growth of rival codes, the martyrdom of a popular figure in Haden could have been a knock-out blow. Haden might not rate as New Zealand’s finest lock, but he has been good enough to have kept commanding a place in the All Black scrum over a long time while deliberately bucking the system.

Had Haden wandered offside in a match he would have expected to hear the shrill blast of the referee’s whistle. He might even have expected . a similar blast yesterday, but the council instead took a mature view of the situation. Its decision to clear Haden was worth much more to rugby than all the well meant but perplexing rule alterations designed by the international body to improve the game. Rugby needs its Andy Hadens. It would be a very dull sport without them. Feature story on Haden, page 22.