Haden

"Through the 1980s, the war of attrition continued and Haden kept challenging the game’s hierarchy. He knew there was money in rugby and he thought that, more than anyone else, players deserved a share of it. When he wrote the book *Boots ’n All!* in the early 1980s, the International Rugby Board tried to ban him, but he declared his occupation as an author to get around prohibitions on earning money as a rugby player. There were anomalies, such as the IRB’s reaction to another book, *The Geriatrics* by Gary Knight, Andy Dalton and John Ashworth: one player was banned, one suspended for a short time and the other let off. ‘So there was no consistency, there was just the International Rugby Board making stuff up as they went along, primarily to stop the game going professional while some, like myself, were trying to do the opposite.’"

"In 1972, on Haden’s first overseas trip as an All Black, the squad had toured the British Isles, France and North America and played 32 matches over four and a half months. The players had received a per diem allowance of 75p. ‘It was about NZ$1.50 a day and if you want a comparison of the value at the time, each day you could afford to buy two of three things—a pint of beer, a ticket to go one stop on the Tube, or post a letter back home,’ Haden says. Naturally, the players’ accommodation, transport and meals were provided, but there was no pay for playing and no compensation for their months away from home. They were amateur players in a strictly amateur code and the fact that most of them had taken leave from their jobs was the sacrifice expected of them as All Blacks. If they had wives and children, well, they just had to make a sacrifice too. The reward for representing New Zealand was the honour of wearing the black jersey, and that was considered by many rugby officials to be sufficient."