New Zealand legend Colin Meads has admitted that allegations of food poisoning during the All Blacks 1995 World Cup campaign were unfounded.

New Zealand lost the Final of the '95 World Cup 12-15 to the Springboks courtesy of a Joel Stransky drop-goal in extra time, but the All Blacks were fuming afterwards as allegations of food poisoning on the eve of the crunch match caused a media storm.

Various conspiracy theories were concocted, and most notably the finger was pointed towards a mysterious and elusive waitress by the name of Suzie as the person responsible for poisoning the All Blacks' meals.

Meads, who was the New Zealand team manager during that World Cup tournament, said that he was of the opinion that it was tainted milk that was to blame for many of the players feeling poorly.

"I put it down to the milk, that was my call," Meads told Yahoo!Xtra.

"I had a big night the night before. The South African Rugby Union was shouting all the managers.

"And being Colin Meads, I thought I had to hold up my end and out-do all the other managers. Those were the ones that were out of the tournament but left there (in South Africa) still.

"And we had a big night out on the Wednesday night.

"I was feeling not too fit the next day. And often when you are feeling like that you have a couple of glasses of milk that puts you right.

"So at lunchtime I had a couple of these big glasses of milk. And I reckon that is what did us, it was in the milk.

"That is my theory. But no-one else believes me."

When asked for his thoughts on the Suzie theory, Meads said: "Well, you just don't know.

"Suzie is just a fictitious person as far as I was concerned. I don't think anyone was called Suzie."

The incident remains unresolved, and the All Blacks are yet to win a second World Cup.

It has been 21 years since All Black captain David Kirk lifted the William Webb Ellis trophy for New Zealand after the first edition of the tournament.

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