This abridged extract is from a chapter titled: Shambles and sackings - Coaching New Zealand Māori teams.
There was controversy even before our 1988 New Zealand Māori team flew out to Italy to start an 11-match tour that would also take us to France, Spain and Argentina.
Buck Shelford was the captain, Mattie Blackburn was the coach and I was the forwards coach. Buck would quickly prove as hard driving off the field as he was on it.
He’d taken over the All Blacks captaincy after the first World Cup that had been held in New Zealand the previous year, first captaining the side during the 1987 tour of Japan.
Upon becoming All Blacks captain, he brought his teammates to the Māori high school, Te Aute College in Hawke’s Bay, to see their students perform a traditional haka. Although the All Blacks had been performing the haka at the start of their matches overseas since the team’s inception, it was Buck who taught them the proper way to perform ‘Ka Mate’.
In ‘88 Buck was certainly not happy about us not getting the same remuneration on tour as the All Blacks. Before we left, the All Blacks had been given a pay rise, with each player getting $15 a day while away.
Unfortunately, even though we were a national side, our New Zealand Māori boys were not deemed worthy of anything like equivalent remuneration, only getting $5 a day while on tour.
Naturally, this led to dissension in our ranks. As a coach on the tour, I agreed with the players that we should have been remunerated the same as the All Blacks.
Buck was adamant we should be on a par, and he took his grievance straight to the New Zealand Rugby Union. As Malcolm Mulholland’s excellent book Beneath the Māori Moon records, before we left New Zealand, ‘Buck ran into hot water with the NZRU. He was rightly aggrieved that while Māori players were getting $5, the All Blacks pocketed $15 a day as well as an additional amount titled “Hardship Pay” that only full international squads were able to claim.’
It was definite discrimination against Māori players, yet Russ Thomas as chairman of the NZRFU wasn’t having a Māori player upsetting the union applecart.
Buck’s first protest had been to delay his confirmation that he was available for the tour. He then made enquiries with the sponsors of his North Harbour provincial side, Tegel Chicken, who offered us $1000 in sponsorship.
In a brilliant bit of lateral thinking Tegel then turned their offer into a challenge for other businesses, asking another 30 companies to follow suit, to help alleviate our financial stress.
This really got up the nose of Russ Thomas who vetoed the Tegel offer, or any other business wanting to financially support the team, claiming that it was against the amateur status of the side. Tegel Chicken tried to save the day, and called the $1000 a donation, but Russ rejected that also.
Not to be outdone, Buck pointed out the inconsistencies in Russ’ viewpoint. At the time the All Blacks had million dollar-plus arrangements with key sponsors, Steinlager and Mizuno.
Russ Thomas then bizarrely claimed that as New Zealand Māori were running at a loss on the books, the books needed to be balanced to warrant further sponsorship.
The hypocrisy was huge. Sadly, it was the repeated refusal of the NZRFU to allow New Zealand Māori to play touring international teams that had caused our financial woes. It smacked of blatant discrimination and a desire, I thought at the time, to see the demise of the Māori team, and it went down like a lead balloon with current and former Māori players.
I think that today in New Zealand there’s still a racial bias that may be unintentional, or even intentional, and in 1988 that bias definitely showed its face.
Russ Thomas may have been a great guy to many, but to others he appeared a bit two-faced. Don’t get me wrong, I am not wanting to speak ill of the dead, but to understand what transpired in ‘88 you need to know how I, and others, felt at the time about his preconceived ideas, attitude and perceived manipulation behind the scenes that had an effect on others.
Other little personal things occurred with me over those years. Russ always wanting me to shave off my beard because he had an image problem with those who wore beards was one. Worse was insinuating to me that Māori in general were light-fingered.
Innuendos like that left me with a feeling of not trusting him completely. His persona may have appeared politically correct, but as far as I was concerned, I don’t think it was one of complete honesty.
Billy Bush: A Front Row View on Life. Photo / Supplied
In 1988 when Buck was upfront with him over the inequity in player fees, it wasn’t a surprise to me that Russ was not happy with Buck for bringing up the matter.
Hearing of our plight and no doubt thinking he could kill two birds with one stone, Koro Wētere, the then Minister of Māori Affairs under Labour Prime Minister David Lange, asked to meet Mattie Blackburn, Buck Shelford and me after Wellington had played at home against Fiji at Athletic Park as part of the South Pacific Championship.
When we went to the meeting with Koro, under the main grandstand at Athletic Park, Russ Thomas was not in attendance.
Koro said to us, ‘I’ve heard you’re having difficulty over funding your forthcoming tour, so the New Zealand Government is going to make a $40,000 koha to your team to be split up equally amongst the boys. The only condition is that an acquaintance of mine by the name of Bert Mackie is going to be your tour kaumatua and he will distribute the money.’
Whether Russ Thomas was aware of the meeting I’m not sure, but it’s highly likely he got wind of the intended donation as the tour progressed.
Bert Mackie was a publican from Christchurch who did not speak Māori at all or have any idea about Māori protocol. Koro must have known that for a person to be considered a designated kaumatua it was dependent on age, knowledge of team history and traditions, and that he needed to speak Māori. Bert didn’t even understand our tribal or team beliefs, and his presence was obviously only a favour to Koro, for whatever reason.
As Māori players we were spiritually inclined and respected our kaumatua. One of our kaumatua’s roles on tour should have been visiting our changing room before each game where he would gather us round in a circle to give us a karakia. We’d then do a haka before exiting for the field. With emotions running high, we’d then perform another haka in front of our opposition, looking them in the eye. Our motivation was to first play for each other as a Māori team, then for ourselves, for our tīpuna and finally for our whenua.
There was no way Bert could fill the role. Basically, he didn’t have anything to do with our team, other than supposedly having the government’s donation money for the players. He subsequently travelled on a separate bus with a group of supporters.
* * *
When we arrived in Italy most players were sporting new hairstyles with NZM cut in their hairline.
Before our first game in Italy, we were presented with a $1500 laundry bill at our hotel. Italian officials hosting our team had refused to pay the bill, claiming that it was the French Rugby Federation’s responsibility. We refused to play until the bill had been paid. After two hours of heated discussion the Italians agreed to front up with the money, although they had to make two trips to bring us cash, as we wouldn’t accept a cheque.
Our tour opener was against the Italian Barbarians in Southern Italy at L’Aquila and although our opposition had some big-name players, we won handsomely, 57–9.
Then en route to Toulon in France to play a Littoral selection half our team’s gear went missing. Fortunately, the boys were compensated for their loss, but not by Bert Mackie.
Another stress was now added when the NZRFU required four of our players to go and play a benefit match in Holland. We defied the order somewhat by picking those players we decided on, and not those specifically requested by the NZRFU. The players sent included Steve Hotton, Ian Dunn, John Timu and Lenny Mason.
Russ Thomas was obviously not happy and indicated from New Zealand that he’d take up the issue with Māori team management when he was in France on International Rugby Board business. ‘He did see us,’ said Mattie Blackburn. ‘I spoke to him for about half an hour, but the issue was not raised at any stage. Nor did he talk to Keith Pearson [our team manager] about it.’
Many of our players had been finding the financial pressure tough, and having run out of money, they’d just been staying in their hotel rooms.
There was a duty-free store in Pau, and several of the boys were hanging out for the $1000 that had been promised to them as their share of Koro Wētere’s koha. Several wanted to buy stereo equipment.
Not having received the donation before we left New Zealand, I asked Bert Mackie where the money was.
‘Oh!’ stammered Bert. ‘My wife has it, and she’ll be bringing it to Argentina.’
This didn’t help the players who were short of cash, so I lent a few of them about $2000 to make their purchases. I should have remembered my father’s advice about not lending money, as it took me years to get it repaid.
* * *
The following year, 1989, I was elevated to the head coaching role with the New Zealand Māori side, but for me it was no cause for celebration.
Both Mattie and Buck had been great in their roles and had been honest, excellent ambassadors for Māori and New Zealand. What happened to them was a travesty of justice that I can now honestly record the facts on.
The same cannot be said for what I saw as the duplicitous behaviour of Russ Thomas. He appeared to have taken every opportunity from the outset in 1988 to stifle New Zealand Māori getting honest player fees, to blame the side for NZRFU financial woes created by the union itself, and to belittle Buck as captain in the media without reference to either him, the coach or the team manager.
He then got rid of Buck as a valued captain of the Māori team, along with Mattie Blackburn as head coach. Whether Russ wanted to see the demise of the Māori side I can’t say, but he certainly didn’t help us at the time, or earn himself much respect, as I believe he had it in for both Buck and Mattie.
As for Koro Wētere’s $40,000 koha, we never did get to see it. When we got home to New Zealand, I tried to find out where the money had gone, but I never got a straight answer.
The question of the donation was raised in Parliament by Labour’s finance minister, Roger Douglas, but there was supposedly no record of it on the books, and the matter was conveniently swept under the carpet. Bert Mackie and his wife, I suspect, had been given a free trip, but I am unsure who arranged it, and that was the end of the matter.
Whether it was Russ, Koro or Bert who stopped, redirected or kept the payment that was meant for our players is unknown as they are now all deceased. What is certain is that the team didn’t get it and that Buck and Mattie were unceremoniously dumped by the NZRFU in a move that had highly likely been orchestrated behind the scenes.
They say politics and sport do not mix, but this is one classic example where they did.
Extracted from Billy Bush: A Front Row View on Life written by Bill Bush with Phil Gifford. Out now ($39.99 RRP, Upstart Press)
- NZ Herald