Byron Kelleher's apology statement

Byron Kelleher. File photo / Brett Phibbs

Rugby star Byron Kelleher has issued a statement in which he apologises for his involvement in a drunken fight after a road accident in France.

The former All Black is now playing for Toulouse in the French Top 14 competition.

"I apologise for the situation that had unfortunately occurred on Thursday night between us.

"It was a circumstance that happens, and can happen, quite often with regards to vehicles meeting each other on the road.

"Unfortunately in my circumstance I felt I had done wrong because I had been past the limit of alcohol. And I wanted to make sure that the situation blew out of proportion.

"So therefore, for me, the first thing I wanted to make sure people understand is that I've made a fault, I've done a mistake, but you practice things in life and, for instance, my character and personality is feeling it more than anything or anybody else, and that I'm wanting to make sure that when you make a fault, that you correct things.

"And I'm wanting to be able to correct things. I suppose I've learnt these habits by my career on the rugby field, of knowing that every time we go out and play we're always judged on what we do, by a referee, and they make us make sure that we always test those boundaries - to test the
boundaries, to test the rules, the regulations.

"And we're always being tested by them. So when we do a fault or we're told we've done a fault, and therefore we correct things. So therefore my
fault so far is the incident on Thursday night.

"And my correction of what I'm wanting to do is first of all apologise to Mr Rostaing.

"Second thing is I wanted to make sure that I can give back to the community of Toulouse, especially, to make sure that people can learn from errors like this.

"And not only learn from what the error is of the accident and the people involved, but how to be able to communicate between people who have different agreements, and be able to come to a conclusion, to make sure that we can better ourselves as people in the community.

"With regards to the community, I'd like to speak with Mr Rostaing about the side of things that I do for my association, Kelleher for Youth, which is for protege and being able to educate the les enfants, and sustainable development aussi.

"And also I try to build relationships between different cultures around the world; between where I've grown up and born and bred in New Zealand, to here in France with the education and processes that they have over here.

"So I've tried to integrate communities and different languages around the world, to make sure that we can get educated by this process of the
environment. So what I'm saying at the moment is that I would like to involve grades together and of some way of how we can better our community and our ways of reacting in the community, I suppose.

"Apres the injuries, I get injuries in games, so I can understand pain. That is not the overall circumstances for me. For me, it's more the mental side of things, dealing with something that I've done wrong. And now I am making sure that I do things right, so I have a better feeling in my head."