Cruden is anything but. Well spoken, intelligent and personable, he's one of the best faces of the All Blacks - a likeable and pleasant young man who has now soiled the bed he made and lay in. So why not let him express his own apology in his own way?
Such corporate-style apologies only widen the gap between the All Blacks and their fans. The demands of professional sport - sponsors, media, fans - mean All Blacks and others are more removed from everyday people; wheeled out on special fan days, choreographed media calls and sponsor obligations. Occasionally an All Black's real character peeps out but it's rare. They're trained to deal with such calls but media training often sees personalities hidden. Robots? Not really, more pro-bots.
Apologies are necessary at least some of the time, but not if their effectiveness is blunted by over-use and bathed in language which means something like: "I'm really sorry and here's a lot of words saying so but we all know this is so I can get back in the All Blacks asap."
Contrast that with the apology from top tennis player Andy Murray, vilified for advocating Scottish independence. Murray, who doesn't live in Scotland and so was ineligible to vote, told the BBC: "I don't regret giving an opinion. I think everyone should be allowed that. The way I did it, yeah, [through Twitter, on polling day] wasn't something I'd do again. The way it was worded, the way I sent it, that's not really in my character and I don't normally do stuff like that."
Different circumstances, obviously, and maybe not quite an apology but Murray at least used his own words and spoke his own mind. So did John Lennon after the Beatle caused global outrage by saying the group were more popular than Jesus in 1966. Later Lennon said: "I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologise if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but, if you want me to apologise, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."
'I'm sorry you're cross' is maybe not an apology but you can see the similarities - a 25-year-old man, unused to the fact the planet is hanging on his every word, says something better said in private. He was probably quite right. They were more popular across the world than the Christian church then. His later remarks show a young man, upset he has upset anyone, trying to show he never meant the hurt, not some corporate gob-waffle.
At least Lennon never had to contend with Twitter and the message Murray got from one of those courageous souls who hide behind pseudonyms. "Wish u had been killed at Dunblane [Murray was a survivor of that horrific school shooting], you miserable anti-British hypocritical little git. Your life will be a misery from now on," said one tweet.
Apologies aren't always necessary but you hoped for more of an acknowledgement from outgoing Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah that he and the club might have made a mistake in letting former coach Ivan Cleary go to the Panthers. In one farewell interview, Scurrah blamed "inaccurate reporting" and maintained Cleary wanted to leave. Cleary says he never wanted to leave. He certainly got an offer from Penrith but took it to the Warriors who decided against matching or bettering it, according to sources at the club at the time.
Penrith have since flourished while the Warriors have got nowhere near the level of success under Cleary. No apology necessary. Speaks for itself.
