The hardest word
Banned All Blacks hooker Hore finally says sorry
RUGBY
IT WAS impossible not to feel for Andrew Hore as he hunched into a small crowded room on the second floor of the All Blacks’ hotel.
This was not the usual version of the happy hooker.
There were no witty one-liners, no grunting giddays, no scraggly stubble or casual beanie.
This was a 34-year-old man laid bare after his name had been dragged through the mud for the past three days.
Suit pressed, shoes shined, eyes wide open – Hore took a deep breath in a bid to relieve his anxiety before taking a seat just a few feet in front of the gathered New Zealand media.
‘‘I want to say how bad I feel and how embarrassed I am to be in this situation,’’ he said.
‘‘It is not the All Black way and I have let myself down and the team down and probably the whole country is pretty proud of what we do.’’
It was uncomfortable to see a hard-man showing his vulnerable side and a guilty moment for those who were quick to demonise the Otago man.
‘‘I have to take what I have got and go back and start building a reputation as a good, clean, hard footy player and hopefully I can do that in the next Super Rugby competition, when I get back playing,’’ he said.
Which is about when the violins stopped playing, and the reality of this messy saga hit home. It has been handled poorly from start to finish by all concerned.
Hore didn’t deserve the character assassination he’s received in many quarters. He’s played 74 tests over 10 years without one serious slip-up. On that evidence he is not a thug. This should have been said on Saturday night in Cardiff, not Wednesday afternoon in London.
But Hore did knock a bloke called Bradley Davies out from behind, and for that he deserved a fitting suspension.
Whether he got one for lashing out just because his chase line was impeded at Millennium Stadium is highly debatable. He didn’t mean to knock him out, but he did. It wasn’t meant to look ugly, but it did.
The injury caused shouldn’t shape the punishment, but it does. This was an ugly concussion that affected Davies for days.