PM: Name change not my crusade

Sports Minister Grant Robertson has slammed an ‘‘appalling, baseless’’ news report claiming that he and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern were driving the push for the Crusaders name change.

Ardern has also dismissed as ‘‘inaccurate’’ a report by carried by Newstalk ZB and the New Zealand Herald that she and Robertson wanted a new name for the Super Rugby champions in the wake of the March 15 terror attacks on two Christchurch mosques.

‘‘It’s odd. I have not expressed an opinion publicly nor even privately actually. I haven’t even mused about to anyone to be able to even speculate,’’ she told The AM Show. ‘‘Apparently I’ve been applying pressure. I didn’t even know about it. It is inaccurate.’’

Robertson was affronted when quizzed about the story by journalists yesterday. ‘‘Absolutely baseless,’’ he said. ‘‘I haven’t had a single conversation with the Crusaders. As far as I am aware, neither has the prime minister. That story was an appalling story. The person who wrote it didn’t bother to check with either ourselves or the Crusaders. They’ve gone on some sort of rumour.’’

Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge said the story was simply ‘‘untrue’’.

The Super Rugby franchise confirmed last week the name and imagery from next season was being reviewed in the wake of the recent terror attack on two Christchurch mosques, with New Zealand Rugby chief executive Steve Tew saying the link to knights on horseback was ‘‘no longer tenable’’.

The name-change pressure emerged because of the centuriesold sensitivity over the history of the Crusades, which were bloody medieval conflicts between Muslims and Christians.