Hello everyone. This column is written in Stratford-Upon-Avon, England. By the time you read this a lot of serious column inches will have been written about the All Blacks v Wales game last weekend.
I won't go intoo much detail about it, save to say there were lots of good moments for the All Blacks in the 29-9 win over a vigorous Welsh team. Dare one suggest that after England got thumped 42-6 by South Africa the unbeaten Grand Slam sequence for New Zealand now seems only a formality for Richie McCaw's team this weekend in London.
But I have something to say about the New Zealand team and the haka incidents of last week. While the previous tour games by the All Blacks here against Scotland and Ireland on this tour were against teams who had never ever beaten the All Blacks, Wales had, but was back in 1953.
The measuring stick of how long ago that is to have a look at the life of Queen Elizabeth II. She was crowned in the year Wales last beat the All Blacks, making it 55 years royalists are celebrating her reign. Times were much more gentile then. When the All Blacks marched onto Cardiff Arms Park on December 19, 1953 they did it with the dignity of the times. And in advance of kickoff they did the traditional Maori challenge.
Their haka done that day and captured on flickering film was, dare i say it, a 'white man's' version, done with stilted almost embarrassed pakeha actions and ending in a joyous leap together which had all the box-brownie cameras clicking away in the grandstands. Last Saturday the Welsh team of 2008 marched onto their Millennium Stadium quite rightly as if it was their own. Based on their recent Six Nations Grand Slam success they quite rightly fronted the modern All Blacks in every way they could.
In a reflection of modern attitudes they did this by not budging from grim eye-to-eye contact when New Zealand performed its haka. At the end of the challenge Wales stood their ground. The All Blacks therefore also did the same. It appeared neither side wanted to concede the moment even to not wanting to budge to start the game. It was a bellicose moment.
Ali Williams had placed his cap out front of the New Zealand team and one of the Welsh players flicked it away. That was seen as an antagonistic act and Richie McCaw kept his team standing there. As the seconds ticked by the referee Jonathan Kaplan bustled from one team to another trying to urge them into their kickoff positions. Neither seemed to want to move.
It was another example that the aggressive actions of our team's haka are increasingly not being accepted by our team's opponents.
One day soon I would not be surprised if pre-game fighting breaks out at an All Blacks Test, or at other sporting events. Either in the grandstands where crowds respond in huge support of their side, or on the field where the face to face might soon tourn to physical fury.
The Kiwi rugby league team's haka before the world cup final in Brisbane on the same day was another example of what I am talking about. Would you have blamed one of the Aussie players from physically pushing away or even clunking one of the New Zealanders who was screaming wildly a ferocious what is perceived to be a war dance right in their faces? I would not have blamed an Aussie one bit.
We know it is a fiery New Zealand tradition before our national team's sports events. We all know our rugby team has tried recently to make it look and be more aggressive. But increasingly opposition teams are not standing for its belligerent presence.
In the same week as four New Zealanders in the Munster team produced a surprise 'Irish' haka for their home team fans to cheer and stomp their approval to there was the Cardiff standoff and the Brisbane face-off by the Aussies. The Munster haka was great but the incidents at Brisbane and Cardiff were not.
I for one do not like where all this is might be leading. It is arrogant of New Zealanders to assume that people from other countries should stand back and respect the war-like challenge. When some fired up opposition player soon decides enough is enough and fighting breaks out, as it surely will, it will then be deemed New Zealand's fault. And we won't have much comeback.
The 'white man's version' of 1953 is long gone into All Black history and fair enough. It is almost cringing to look at. But what has replaced it is a modern aggressive understanding of the way Maori did the haka in the real wars. We understand it, but not everyone in the world does.
Call me a white man. But also call me a Kiwi who worries about how our sports people are perceived in the world.
Cool heads are going to have to prevail soon over the haka's future. Where does it go from here?
