2: Ma’a NONU FiReD BY hURRiCaNeS

SUpeR RUGBY

Former All Blacks hooker and Crusaders assistant coach Mark Hammett was promoted to be head coach of the Hurricanes in 2011.

It wasn’t proving to be a successful start to his campaign when the Hurricanes were languishing bottom-to-mid table.

But it became apparent in June that things were much worse than anyone realised when it was revealed that Hammett had effectively sacked captain Andrew Hore and high profile All Black Ma’a Nonu.

The latter had been with the club since 2003 and was a huge favourite with the local fans, but Hammett felt both Nonu and Hore were a disruptive influence and not upholding the values he expected.

“Both of them would have potentially liked to have done one more season here so because of that there’ll be some hurt feelings around that,” Hammett said.

“If you’re asking if there’s been yelling and screaming, no, of course there hasn’t.”

Nonu was devastated by the decision to fire him and released a statement which said: “Obviously you’ve heard about what’s happened and I guess it’s true.

“I guess for myself it’s pretty disappointing, not being required next year. I had nothing to do with the matter but I guess that’s the way it goes. It’s a shame but you move on.” longer pre-season to condition.

The decision was massively unpopular with the Super Rugby clubs and Sky TV, the broadcast rights holder as they had not been consulted about the plan.

It was also unpopular with fans as they felt it would damage the tournament and privately a few players likely to be in the conditioning group were not happy about it either.

And it did indeed prove to be a disaster. Crowds were down as were TV audiences.

The final ended up being the Sharks and Bulls and the momentum built there enabled the Springboks to go on to be world champions after the All Blacks crashed out in the quarter-final.