French PM apologises over New Zealand rugby incident

Updated July 2, 2009 17:29:16

France has apologised to New Zealand for tainting the country's image, after a French rugby player lied about being assaulted by a group of New Zealanders while he was on tour in the country last month. New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says the apology from his French counterpart came "out of the blue" and he hopes it will be the end of the matter. But things have got a whole lot worse for the French player who made up the story - he's now recovering in a psychiatric hospital.


Presenter:Kerri Ritchie, New Zealand correspondent
Speakers: John Key, NZ prime minister; Ian Borthwick, sports journalist for the French newspaper L'Equipe

KERRI RITCHIE: Mathieu Bastareaud was considered a rising star in the French rugby team. But the 20-year-old's world has come crashing down. Last month, Bastareaud told his team managers, that his facial injuries were the result of an unprovoked attack by five men, as he returned to his Wellington hotel after France was defeated by the All Blacks.

It was a huge story in New Zealand. The Prime Minister John Key as well as the Mayor of Wellington apologised to France on behalf of all New Zealanders. But Mathieu Bastareaud had made the whole thing up.

JOHN KEYS: Young sportspeople from time to time would do silly things on tours. This isn't the first person, Mathieu Bastareaud isn't the first player to have caused such an indiscretion and probably won't be the last of some sort that embarrasses their country.

KERRI RITCHIE: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key received a phone call this morning telling him there was a letter he should read from the French Prime Minister on a website. Francois Fillon wrote that he was very sorry for the harm the player's lie has caused.

EXTRACT FROM LETTER FROM THE FRENCH PRIME MINISTER: The French team's tour of New Zealand was marked by the unjustifiable behaviour of one its players. Through his false statements, as a result of which you had to intervene publicly, he seriously tainted the image of your country and its peoples.

Our two countries share the culture of rugby. This sport has always enabled our two nations to come together and share a mutual respect. I hope that these sentiments will prevail after this regrettable affair.

KERRI RITCHIE: As well as Prime Minister, John Key is also New Zealand's Tourism Minister. He says the lie could have harmed New Zealand's reputation as a sporting host and a holiday destination - but he says it's not the end of the world.

JOHN KEYS: I think it was appropriate that the French Prime Minister wrote because it is important that we can deal with the matter but as the letter notes, you know New Zealand and France have a very strong shared history when it comes to rugby and I would extend that to sport in general and from, I think, New Zealand's point of view, it is important now that we put the matter behind us.

KERRI RITCHIE: The managers of the French rugby team said at the time that they didn't contact police when Bastareaud told them he'd been assaulted because the player couldn't give a description of his attackers. Bastareaud was then quickly put on a plane back to Paris.

He only came clean when New Zealand police revealed they had CCTV footage of the 20-year-old entering his motel uninjured. Bastareaud said he'd got drunk and hit his head on a bedside table, but rumours are now circulating that there was a fight amongst the French players.

The French Rugby Federation is investigating how the team handled the whole thing.

Ian Borthwick is a sports journalist for the French newspaper L'Equipe. He told Radio New Zealand the French Prime Minister's apology is very unusual.

IAN BORTHWICK: It is a measure of the importance that the French are giving it. It has really become almost an affair of state for the French as much as it has been for New Zealand and I can't even remember the French even at the height of the Rainbow Warrior affair being so conciliatory towards New Zealand and being so careful to perhaps try and re-establish its image in the South Pacific.

KERRI RITCHIE: He says the fallout from Mathieu Bastareaud's lie has been huge news in France. Ian Borthwick says the French team is giving the young man moral support, after he tried to take his own life and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

IAN BORTHWICK: They want the whole thing to blow over and he needs to be cut off from all outside influences as I understand it, to get himself back together.

KERRI RITCHIE: Mathieu Bastareaud is expected to remain in hospital for at least another week.