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Cape Town - Twenty years after they were beaten by South Africa in the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, the All Blacks are still adamant they were poisoned.
After a gruelling 90 minutes, the match ended 9-all, before the Springboks won 15-12 after extra-time.
The All Blacks subsequently complained that several of their players were ill in the build-up to the June 24, 1995 showpiece, and as the 20-year anniversary of the match looms, the claims have once again re-surfaced in New Zealand media.
All Black coach Laurie Mains was adamant afterwards his players were poisoned by a waitress who became known as 'Suzie'.
According to The New Zealand Herald, Mains hired a private investigator to try to get to the bottom of the matter.
"My wife knew a private investigator in South Africa and, after we came home, we contacted him and asked him to see what he could find out, if anything, because I knew all the doors would be shut," Mains recalled.
"He had moderate success and did establish a black lady had been employed by the hotel two days before we arrived and the day after we got sick, she disappeared completely."
Several months later, Mains got word from financial contacts in London that bookmakers were behind the incident.
According to the report, half the All Black team were vomiting and had diarrhoea.
Team manager Brian Lochore recalled the dinner when they might have been poisoned.
"I was just going into the dining room and they said, 'no, no, the All Blacks are in this room over here'. I went, 'I thought we were having our meal over here' and they said, 'no, no, there's a room over here for the All Blacks' and I thought that was strange."
On the morning of the final, the All Blacks were better but still lacked energy.
"If you had asked me what the score was going to be on the Saturday morning I thought about 30-0 to South Africa,” said Lochore.
"Every one of those players and many were fearfully ill during that game, showed great courage. I had high regard for them anyway but what they did in that game stepped them up further in my admiration," Lochore continued.
