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Former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry has issued a public apology for his candid criticism of Super Rugby match officials.
The Sanzar judiciary heard a misconduct complaint on Sunday against Blues technical advisor Henry for comments made to journalists in the wake of their 23-3 loss to the Crusaders on May 18.
Judicial officer Jannie Lubbe said the veteran mentor’s guilty plea and written apology, along with an exemplary 40-year coaching record, meant a fine was unwarranted.
However, Lubbe called on Henry to publicly apologise to match officials for the remarks.
The 66-year-old did so on Tuesday via a Blues media statement, admitting he had breached the Sanzar code of conduct.
“I want to apologise to Sanzar and to the match officials involved for my comments, and for any offence they may have felt, as this was certainly not my intention,” he said.
“My intention was to try to respond to media questions in relation to matters I thought were important, in an honest but humorous style.
“I clearly failed to achieve that and in some respects, I accept my comments went too far in criticising the match officials.”
Henry’s strongly-worded comments focused on New Zealand television match official Keith Brown, who he said got two crucial decisions wrong during the game at Christchurch.
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