Former All Blacks coach Sir Steve Hansen has been told to "stick to his day job" by former Rugby Australia boss John O'Neill.
Last week, Hansen commented that NZ Rugby owes Australia nothing, as debate heats up over the future of Super Rugby.
A trans-Tasman competition has been proposed, but some reports suggest just two Australian teams may be invited - NZR chief executive Mark Robinson later refuted that notion.
But Hansen's comments have angered Rugby Australia chairman Hamish McLennan, who contacted former CEO O'Neill to clear up the assertion that Australia bailed on New Zealand as co-hosts of the 2003 Rugby World Cup.
Hansen used the hosting rights saga as an example of "sometimes a rocky relationship" between the two organisations.
"We have been looking after the Aussies for years," Hansen said. "Every time we have required something from them, particularly at a high level, sometimes they have gone missing.
"Do we owe them something? No."
O'Neill confirmed McLennan's call to the Sydney Morning Herald and rubbished Hansen's assertions, quoting an NZR-commissioned report that absolved the ARU of any blame.
"I'll paraphrase the conclusions," O'Neill says. "The NZRU shot themselves in the foot.
"Rugby World Cup and the International Rugby Board had particular conditions about clean stadia, and you either had to comply or lose the hosting rights.
"Yes, the terms and conditions for hosting may well have been onerous - but in our language, like it or lump it.
"NZ Rugby - through arrogance and hubris - thought they could force the IRB and Rugby World Cup to change the rules. They didn’t.
"Judge Eichelbaum’s words about me were that I did no more than act in the best interests of Australian rugby.
"NZ Rugby, at the time, got rid of the board who stuffed it up. They got rid of the CEO, Steve Tew stayed on and, later in 2007, became the CEO.
"Steve [Tew] was No.2 to David Rutherford and he remains one of Steve Hansen’s best friends.
“Steve [Hansen] can make as many comments about rugby as he wants, but in this case, he was not in the vicinity and it's part of the game he wouldn’t know anything about.
"If he lumps that in the category as an example of Australia letting New Zealand down or going missing, that doesn’t stack up."
Last month, McLennan said that Australia was open to the idea of gifting New Zealand several pool matches of the 2027 Rugby World Cup, should they win the rights.
But O'Neill believes that would be foolish and is pandering to NZR's ego.
"I don’t agree with it," O’Neill said. "Ever since Australia hosted the World Cup on its own in 2003, the template is one country.
"When England hosted it in 2015, it was just in England. Sharing it around doesn’t work.
"I know that might be a bargaining chip [for a trans-Tasman Super Rugby competition], but I’d separate that out.
"It’s ours to lose."
O'Neill believes his sketchy relationship with Tew was probably the catalyst for Hansen's comments, but has urged New Zealand to get over something that happened almost two decades ago.
"It would be foolish to say Steve [Tew] and I had a close relationship. It was a particularly sensitive matter for Steve - not for me - and it is what it is.
"You can’t rewrite history to serve your own purpose."
