Former SA Rugby boss Ed Griffiths still believes the All Blacks themselves were to blame for some of their players falling ill ahead of the 1995 World Cup final.

The Springboks caused a major upset when they beat the All Blacks 15-12 at Ellis Park in Johannesburg to claim their maiden World Cup title in fairytale-like fashion.

But while the host nation celebrated the victory, then New Zealand coach Laurie Mains blamed the hotel his team had been staying in for a number of his players falling sick with – what they believed to be –food poisoning at the hands of a waitress named ‘Suzie’.

But, according to Griffiths, the New Zealanders had nobody but themselves to blame because of their ill-judged decision to eat seafood before the title decider.

‘Look, it’s true that five or six of them did have a stomach upset and I remember seeing Marc Ellis vomiting on the side of the field, so it’s certainly true,’ Griffiths told the RugbyPass.com website.

‘But all I would say on that is they ate seafood – sort of prawns, crayfish and stuff – days before a World Cup final. I mean, most people would know that seafood is something that at the wrong time can give you food poisoning and clearly some of them seemed to have picked up food poisoning from that.

‘There was all talk of this woman called Suzie from Southern Sun and there were all sorts of rumours about it. I remember Laurie Mains talking about it. But all I will say is that whatever they ate it was their choice to eat it. No one forced them to eat seafood days before the World Cup final.’

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