Lindsay sees red over loss

Rugby League

Maurice Lindsay, the Rugby League chief executive, has blamed the New Zealand Rugby League for the cash shortfall which has overshadowed the Great Britain tour. He accused the NZRL of making "wildly optimistic" forecasts of gate receipts for the trip, which Lindsay estimates will make a loss of pounds 500,000.

He said: "We never expected to recover much by way of gate receipts from Papua New Guinea or Fiji, but the financial projections given to us by the New Zealand Rugby League have been widely optimistic, to say the least. When New Zealand invited us to tour we reminded them of the losses suffered in 1990. We were assured this would not happen again."

It is likely that Britain will refuse to visit New Zealand again unless any tour itinerary includes lucrative matches in Australia as well.