The New Zealand Rugby Union will conduct its own investigation into All Blacks winger Doug Howlett's arrest in London earlier this week after an incident at the team's hotel near Heathrow Airport.
All Blacks manager Darren Shand said Howlett, 29, was arrested early on Tuesday morning after a incident that damaged two cars and was interviewed by police at the Hilton Hotel, where the players were staying prior to their return to New Zealand.
"Two cars parked in the hotel's car park were damaged in the incident," Shand said.
Howlett was staying at the hotel with members of the All Blacks team, who returned to New Zealand on Wednesday after their quarterfinal elimination by France at the Rugby World Cup.
The winger, who became the New Zealand's leading tryscorer in Tests during the World Cup, was one of six All Black who had planned and remained in Europe for a holiday.
"We are waiting for the police to conclude their inquiries. Once that occurs, we will initiate our own process to look into the incident and related issues," Shand said.
"It is a serious matter and we are concerned that something of this nature has occurred at what is already a disappointing time for the team and for our supporters," he said.
Reports said Howlett would be charged with causing criminal damage and was released on bail with orders to return to court later this month.
New Zealand radio reports quoted witnesses as saying Howlett had been jumping on the two cars which had been damaged. A hotel room in which Howlett had been staying with his partner and children also was damaged, reports said.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a 29-year-old man had been arrested after London police responded to a disturbance at around 3am on Tuesday.
The arrested man was likely to face charges of causing criminal damage, the spokesman said.
Howlett later apologized to the New Zealand Rugby Union and to "people back home" for his behavior.
"I'm embarrassed that the events of one evening have led to me being in this situation. It was a little bit of tomfoolery that has caused me to be here," he said in a videotaped statement. "It's an embarrassing time but I do take sole responsibility. There was drink involved, and it's not an excuse."
Howlett said he was working with London police to find the owners of the cars involved to make restitution.
The All Blacks winger, whose international career ended at the World Cup after 62 Tests, will join the Irish rugby club Munster in January to start a two-and-a-half-year contract.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier