Saru apologises over Ellis Park Haka disruption

The South African Rugby Union (Saru) has apologised to the New Zealand Rugby Union for the interference towards the end of the All Blacks’ Haka.

The incident happened ahead of this past weekend’s Rugby Championship Test at Ellis Park.

SA Rugby has formally apologised to @NZRugby for a sequence of events that led to the conclusion of the Haka being obscured on Saturday – more here: https://t.co/b1L5HFKBXt 🤝#Springboks pic.twitter.com/p3cR8zEw9J

— Springboks (@Springboks) September 2, 2024

As the Haka was drawing to a conclusion, fireworks were set off and the infamous ‘Sister Bettina’ song, which has become synonymous with Springbok home matches, began playing around the ground while the A380 airliner flew overhead.

Saru has blamed this to failure to observe the ‘pre-planned scheduling’ and ‘human error’.

[WATCH] 🇳🇿 All Blacks fullback Damian McKenzie on the #Springboks supporters “disrespect” towards the Haka, Sacha Freinberg-Mngomezulu, going to Cape Town and New Zealand’s chances of still winning the #RugbyChampionship pic.twitter.com/J9WN3G7RjE

— Ntsako Mkhari (@Ntsako_Mkhari_) September 1, 2024

In a statement on Monday, SA Rugby CEO, Rian Oberholzer, said: “I apologised in person and have written to the NZRFU to formally express our regret and apologies for what occurred.”

“It was never the intention to schedule any activities that would coincide with such an iconic moment of any Test match against the All Blacks. That it occurred was a result of timekeeping challenges and simple human error,” he added.

“In the confusion, the crowd’s excited cheering was mistaken to have marked the conclusion of the Haka by an unsighted sound engineer who restarted the music programme. It was highly regrettable but in no way deliberate.”

“We hold dear the values and traditions of the game,” Oberholzer continued. “The unfortunate events in no way represent any lack of respect that South African rugby holds for the significance and history of the Haka. We will ensure such errors cannot be repeated.”

The next showdown between the old foes will be on Saturday in Cape Town.