KEY POINTS:
Former New Zealand Rugby Union chief executive David Moffett says All Blacks coach Graham Henry and the deputy chief executive of the union should be sacked.
He believes both should have resigned as soon as the All Blacks lost to France in the World Cup quarterfinal on Sunday (NZ time).
"It's just not acceptable. It wouldn't happen in industry. We've got to remember it was the (NZ) rugby union and Graham Henry who said 'judge us on the World Cup'," Moffett said.
"They put all their eggs in that basket, including an awful lot of money and they failed. Therefore, they've got to be held accountable," Moffett told Radio Sport today.
He is the first prominent person in the sport or who had been involved in the sport at top level to call for heads to roll.
Moffett headed the Australian National Rugby League, the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Welsh Rugby Union before retiring in Christchurch.
He said Tew, who will take over from Chris Moller as chief executive of the NZRU when Moller leaves the job soon, should be just as responsible as Henry as he was part of the team that approved the coach's plans.
"The careers of the CEO and coach hinges on the whole campaign, which was fundamentally flawed from the beginning. I think we all decided we would get behind it and hope that it was going to be successful, and it wasn't. And there's no hiding from that point. Everybody who is trying to make excuses should have a good look at themselves.
"You can't make excuses. In actual fact, I prefer for the union to come along and say 'we stuffed this up, we know where we went wrong, we know what we're going to be doing', and get on with it. Instead, now they're going to have internal/external reviews. You talk to the average Kiwis and they'll tell you what went wrong."
Moffett said if he was still chief executive of the NZRU, he would have been against the All Blacks' reconditioning programme that took out 22 players from the first half of the Super 14 competition and the extensive rotation of test players.
"The black jersey means an awful lot. And it still means a lot. Unfortunately, I believe, it was devalued by rotation.
"You can't treat the best jersey in the world in the way it has been treated. Players are saying that, Laurie Mains (1992-95 All Blacks coach) has said that. You've got to earn it (jersey)."
He said World Cup players such as Daniel Carter, Jerry Collins, Keven Mealamu and Anton Oliver couldn't understand why they were on the sidelines a week after playing well in a test.
Australia and New Zealand were the only elite teams in the tournament who didn't play for about three months in the leadup to the tournament while northern hemisphere teams and South Africa were engaged in warmups.
"They should have been selecting a team which they knew would be the A team so that they gave the players confidence and that's just not me saying that. I think that was an absolute disaster and its cheapened the jersey."
Moffett said too much emphasis was made on the World Cup to the detriment of rugby at the lower level such as the Super 14 and Air NZ Cup.
"The importance placed on the World Cup is unhealthy and this is the problem. And this is why I am speaking out so volubly because Graham Henry and the rugby union said 'trust us, we're doing to spend $9 million or whatever it was, we're going to devalue the Super 14, we're going to devalue the jersey and we're going to win the World Cup'. And they failed miserably.
"Let's not make excuses. It's the worse finish by an All Blacks side. There has to be accountability and the accountability starts with Graham Henry. I think he should have already done the right thing and resigned or else he should have been sacked and the other guy who I think is culpable is Steve Tew, who apparently is going to take over as chief executive. I've got no faith in his ability to take the New Zealand Rugby Union forward."
Meanwhile most of the All Blacks and team officials will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow at 9.45
- NZPA
