Race row in New Zealand rugby

[Kiwi]

Former All Black Andy Haden has stirred up a big debate in New Zealand, claiming that NZ's most successful Super 14 franchise, the Canterbury Crusaders, have a racially based selection policy. Funnily enough, this policy is intended to reduce the number of non-white players in the Crusaders squad. This has created a huge amount of debate in New Zealand about Haden's comments, but also on the issue of the 'browning' of New Zealand rugby and race in general. This issue has been simmering in New Zealand for some time now and looks like it has finally risen to the surface. I would be very interested to hear any of your thoughts on the subject and how it compares to the situation in America.

The original article:
NZ rugby race row
News story


Reaction:
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Polynesians need things explained by 'simple concepts'Edited by: Kiwi

 

[devans]

Welcome back Kiwi. Not heard much from you for a year or two.<?: prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" />
Interesting debate going on over there about club <?: prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" /><st1lace w:st="on">Rugby</st1lace>.
I suppose it is a similar situation to world soccer where teams recruit the best players from anywhere they can find them.
But what about the national team?
How many Polynesians and pacific islanders have qualified to the All Black via residence or whatever and made the team?
Is there any debate about this issue?

 

[backrow]

i applaud Crusaders for their success on the field with mostly white team comprised of the actual Kiwis. by far my favorite team featuring all time greats like McCaw, Thorn, Chris Jack and Dan Carter. Interestingly enough, some of their white backs are undoubtfully amongst the fastest players in the Super 14, namely Maitland and Guilford.

Edited by: backrow

 

[itsme]

i applaud Crusaders for their success on the field with mostly white team comprised of the actual Kiwis. by far my favorite team featuring all time greats like McCaw, Thorn, Chris Jack and Dan Carter. Interestingly enough, some of their white backs are undoubtfully amongst the fastest players in the Super 14, namely Maitland and Guilford.

Maitland and Guilford are both maori.

Ben Smith(Highlanders) is the only white winger in NZ, the rest are all maori or pacific islanders.

 

[celticdb15]

Idk just by doing a quick google search Maitland and Guilford look to have majority white blood..

 

[Kiwi]

You've got to take into account in New Zealand there are a lot of European New Zealanders who have got some Maori blood, and that there are no Maori who don't have European blood. Guildford and Maitland might be considered Maori by a lot of people within New Zealand, but outside of NZ no-one would make that distinction, because they look like Europeans.

For example, some of these guys have in recent years been picked for the NZ Maori team which plays every few years.

Robbie Robinson

Christian Cullen

Glen Jackson

In any case, our best winger (and I reckon the best in the world at the moment), Cory Jane, is white anyway.

 

[backrow]

even kiwis consider Dan Carter white and he seemingly has some maori in them as well. i dunno, that's even blurrier than Tyler Gaffney situation haha

 

[Kiwi]

even kiwis consider Dan Carter white and he seemingly has some maori in them as well. i dunno, that's even blurrier than Tyler Gaffney situation haha

I don't know why people think Dan Carter is a maori, neither of his parents look anything other than European. I guess in New Zealand, if you have a tan, people automatically assume you're part Maori!