RFU tried to buy NZ maid’s silence

England’s embattled Rugby Football Union (RFU) tried to buy the silence of a New Zealand chambermaid following allegations of sexual harassment during the World Cup, London’s The Times reported yesterday.

The newspaper quoted a confidential Rugby Players’ Association report into the incident in a hotel in Dunedin and alleged the woman concerned had been offered $22,000 to keep quiet after James Haskell, Chris Ashton and Dylan Hartley were accused of verbal sexual harassment.

A player quoted anonymously in the report said the players were told: “You’ve got 24 hours to decide whether to settle with the girl for (NZ)$30,000 or not. Paying the money seemed to be the advice. Another option wasn’t really given.

“We refused to pay because we hadn’t done what she claimed we had done. So we went to find our own lawyers in New Zealand because we felt the RFU QC was interested in defending the RFU’s reputation rather than ours.”

The players said they had made an inappropriate joke but nothing more serious.

The maid’s story later appeared in a Sunday newspaper, sparking a storm that saw Haskell and Ashton given a warning and fined by the RFU. Hartley was exonerated.