I agree in some aspects. Why is it other teams, without that "warrior" culture, without a war cry ritual of there own are unable to respond to the challenge in a respectful way.Snooze.
It's an absolute gee up that NZ do the haka and every country in the world has to pander to them. Don't move, don't react, don't do squat. It doesn't even matter if it's a game in your own country on your own turf; this cynical piece of marketing, and that's all it is, takes precedence over home ground respect. As the first clip in this thread highlights, it's not exactly a long standing tradition. It's a ploy designed to sell tshirts and to allow them to carry on like prize twits in the faces of opponents they should be respecting. I wish the had crowd participation on the same level as England; if you're not allowed to go and do your own thing, or indeed react in any way whatsover it seems, then we need the crowd to just drown out the nonsense with a wave of sound.
It's from a shitty point and shoot, but I filmed it, was awesome.
[video=youtube;qNWnvJFA9aw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNWnvJFA9aw[/video]
The best thing the Wobblies ever did was have John Williamson lead the crowd in 'Waltzing Matilda' after the Haka,
i love the haka and i love seeing it done before games - the school boys ones are flippin' awesome.
I think we live in a society where the basic, animalistic, testosterone-filled, macho instincts of a man are often suppressed and ridiculed and sometimes illegal that sometime men need to find outlets like full contact sports and the haka to still feel a macho. A lot of it's bullshit but i think some of us are wired like that and it's ok. We need to hit some guys in a rugby game on saturday to get us thru the next week of sitting in our office toeing the company line.
I hate the irb setting out these dumb rules about how teams can 'respect' the haka or face it. This is a war dance. The other team doesn't have to respect if they don't want to and they should be able to lay down their own challenge, or take up the ab challenge in whatever way they want - barring actual physical contact obviously. The haka isn't performed as a nice cultural token for the spectators to get all warm fuzzies about. It's about laying down the challenge that we are here to f**k you up, run all over the top of you and make you feel like you wish you'd never been picked to wear that ugly jersey you call an international strip. The opposition should be allowed to equally show an attitude of, 'you can do that stupid f**kn little dance all you want but as soon as you touch that ball i'm gona rip your f**kn arms off and start doing the robot with them to the stadium's sound system playing 'slice of heaven' as you're stretchered off the park you little shits'. But if they want to stand there and respect the haka - they can do that too.
My point is that it's a war dance and this is professional sports - whatever a pro sportsperson need to do to get up and play to their best ability of the day - let them do it. If they have to face a haka (long may it continue) and a sportsman wants to walk up to half-way and stare down the ab, let them. If they want to ignore the haka and do warm-ups, let them.
Then kick the ball off and let the game do the talking.
I know it doesn't generate the spark that the Haka does, but I really like Waltzing Matilda. I think it was great during the Bledisloe last year with John Williamson leading it.
I find it annoying that it takes a crowd announcer to get a crowd involved, it doesn't feel as genuine.Speaking as a Saffer I enjoy it too. I missed that game last year but was it Williamson who would stroll around just before kick off years ago? Thought it was great, nice way to get the crowd involved. Sure it's not a Haka or equivalent but does it have to be?
South Africa tried some nonsense with Zulu warriors on the field at one stage, but it just felt contrived. We already have a great response to the Haka in Shosholoza. The video below is from a soccer game but there is no reason we can't get this going at every home rugby match after the Haka.
[video=youtube;8K4Vi6oPQL8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K4Vi6oPQL8[/video]
The one thing that has always struck me is no one ever whinges about other countries' war dances, just New Zealand's.Snooze.
It's an absolute gee up that NZ do the haka and every country in the world has to pander to them. Don't move, don't react, don't do squat. It doesn't even matter if it's a game in your own country on your own turf; this cynical piece of marketing, and that's all it is, takes precedence over home ground respect. As the first clip in this thread highlights, it's not exactly a long standing tradition. It's a ploy designed to sell tshirts and to allow them to carry on like prize twits in the faces of opponents they should be respecting. I wish the had crowd participation on the same level as England; if you're not allowed to go and do your own thing, or indeed react in any way whatsover it seems, then we need the crowd to just drown out the nonsense with a wave of sound.
The one thing that has always struck me is no one ever whinges about other countries' war dances, just New Zealand's.
The one thing that has always struck me is no one ever whinges about other countries' war dances, just New Zealand's.
A less charitable person might edit your post to say It's the one we've lost by far the most to?It's the one we've got by far the most exposure to?
Agree with the IRB's needless intervention.Not whinging about it, I am happy for it to be done, but I wish there was far less regulation about how it must be "dealt with" by opposing teams. That's the bit to which I object.
A less charitable person might edit your post to say It's the one we've lost by far the most to?