Airline gives players the boot

Player turbulence: Love was not in the air for the South Canterbury rugby team

Verbal comments made by a rugby player saw the entire team forced off an Air New Zealand flight last Sunday.

South Canterbury rugby team were flying from Gisborne to Wellington when an air hostess took exception to a player's comment.

She complained to the pilot and the team was offloaded and rescheduled to a later flight to Christchurch.

South Canterbury coach Ken Wills, who was on the flight but asleep when the incident happened, said he felt after talking to the players that it was an over reaction to a single comment.

"One of the guys was trying to use a pick-up line and exchange text numbers," Willis told the Timaru Herald newspaper.

Wills said the comment was along the lines of "I like the way you walk".

"The boys had a lot of fun on a flight on the way up and one got an air hostess's number so they were all trying to match him," he said.

As the team tried to board the next flight, team assistant manager Simmon Edwards was told they could not board but the tickets were reissued for a later flight.

Wills said security officers told them the air hostess felt intimidated and added she had been involved in an incident the previous year.

"We apologised for the comment but she also thought the Polynesian boys were laughing at her as they were speaking Tongan, which wasn't the case.

"Then I argued it was a bit over the top and have asked Air New Zealand for a written reason why we were not allowed to continue because I think it was a storm in a teacup."

Wills said the team had received a dressing down and he was sure it would not happen again.

Air New Zealand declined to comment on the incident, saying they have a policy not to publicly comment on or discuss any customers who use their services.