Maori quota for All Blacks, says former prop

Former All Black and New Zealand Maori player Bill Bush is calling for a 50 per cent Maori quota for the All Blacks.

The former world-class prop also wants a Maori team included in the Rugby World Cup and greater scrutiny of players claiming Maori heritage.

Bush, who lives in Christchurch and played 12 tests and 37 matches between 1974 and 1979, is among former and current elite Maori athletes attending the Indigenous Sports Conference, which opened in Rotorua yesterday.

Speaking before his presentation, he said it was time recognition of the Treaty of Waitangi extended to rugby.

"The All Blacks should have a 50 per cent Maori quota."

The quota would stop the continued drain of top Maori rugby talent overseas, and attract more Maori to rugby, halting a decline that has seen Maori numbers slump to just 9 per cent of all Auckland rugby players.

The New Zealand Rugby Union said there were no plans to change the All Black selection criteria.

Deputy chief executive Steve Tew said, "The New Zealand public want the All Blacks picked on merit, a national team representing the whole country."

Bush said New Zealand was the only place Maori existed so they should be allowed to enter a team in the Rugby World Cup.

"Whereas the Samoan and Tongan players can play for the islands if they don't make the All Blacks, Maori players have nowhere to go."

The proposals received a warm but cautious reception from a number of delegates, including Australian Rugby Union high-performance coach Manu Sutherland. Sutherland, who has lived in Australia for more more than 20 years, selects potential Wallabies and provides training and mentoring as they come through the ranks.

He said he was excited by proposals at the hui. The Ngati Whatua descendant has been instrumental in the growing number of Maori and Pacific Island players reaching the elite level in Australian rugby.

"You need to develop programmes that embrace the culture, while instilling discipline in other areas including education," he said.

Former league great and Maori television frontman Tawera Nikau said it was important that Maori and Pacific Island athletes were trained in other skills off the sports field.

"Once your playing days are over, no one wants to know you. They are left to go back driving trucks or working on roads."

The Indigenous Sports Conference is the brainchild of New Zealand Sports Academy head and former assistant New Zealand Maori coach Jim Love.

He said the hui was tasked with developing structures to ensure Maori and Pacific island athletes continued to excel in New Zealand and internationally.

It was also a celebration of the contribution of Maori in sport and an attempt to create an environment where "sportspeople, coaches, managers and administrators can get together, share ideas and come up with alternative indigenous sporting models".

The United States, Italy, Nepal, Australia and the Pacific Islands are represented.


2005 line-up

* All Blacks who played for NZ Maori last year include:
Carl Hayman
Corey Flynn
Jono Gibbes
Marty Holah
Paul Tito
Caleb Ralph
Leon MacDonald
Luke McAlister
Piri Weepu
Rico Gear
Rua Tipoki