- Andy Haden
Andrew Maxwell Haden (born
September 26 ,1950 ) was arugby union lock-forward for theNew Zealand All Blacks in the 1970s and 1980s.Life and career
Born in
Wanganui ,New Zealand , he made his All Black debut in 1972, and his Test debut against theBritish Lions in 1977 - going on to make 41 appearances and scoring 2 tries. He played club rugby for Auckland, Harlequins in London and Algida in Italy.Haden was a controversial player, who was accused of cheating and unsporting conduct by opposing players. The most infamous occurrence of this happened in a match against
Wales atCardiff Arms Park in 1978. The score was 12-10 in Wales's favour, when Haden and another New Zealand player, Frank Oliver, suddenly fell to the ground as if pushed. The referee awarded a penalty in the dying moments of the match, which Brian McKechnie kicked, winning the game for New Zealand. Later, Welsh legendJPR Williams wrote that Haden should have been sent off. Despite the controversy however, the referee subsequently stated that the penalty had actually been awarded for an actual infringement against Oliver and not the Haden 'dive' as was thought. Haden doesn't however deny that the attempts to cheat the referee were pre planned, something also confirmed by his captainGraham Mourie . Haden made his last Test appearance in 1985 againstArgentina .In 2003, Andy announced that he was fighting
cancer after being diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Despite this, Andy vows to fight on, and is currently an agent for various celebrities.External links
* [http://www.sporting-heroes.net/rugby-heroes/displayhero.asp?HeroID=1113 Sporting-Heroes.Net] - a profile and picture of Andy Haden
*
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