Editorial: More guards? Just don't look, Ethel

Rose Kupa was let off with a warning after streaking at the All Blacks test in Napier on Saturday. Photo / Getty Images

In the cold light of day, thanks to the cold light of last Saturday night, New Zealand has gone through yet another transitional phase since a young Flaxmere lady strutted her stuff, minus her clothes, across McLean Park in the latter stages of the rugby test.

As streaks go, Rose Kupa's frolic had just about everything, although a lot more of it was tied-up in the debate that followed rather than the moment itself. But, ultimately it came down to two points; a matter of decency, or a matter of security.

The matter of decency raised many issues, making us wonder what the response may have been had it actually been part of the official entertainment.

Like the undies dash involving a bunch of likely lads at halftime in the ITM Cup match between Hawke's Bay and Taranaki at McLean Park on August 22. Indeed, the prancing of the cheerleaders who, while wearing more than twice as much as those dudes, still weren't - nor ever are - exactly lost in their raiment. Indeed, All Blacks prancing in their Jockeys for the sponsors.

It was, thus, a little trite for last Saturday's effort to be condemned for its nudity, as it was in some quarters. Or the fact that the police let Ms Kupa off with something less than a smack on the bottom. Or even its sense of naughty rebellion - the game of rugby, indeed, might never have been had it not been for the antics of a schoolboy in England in 1923.

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Running in the nude has been with us a long time, at least since 1799 when a man arrested in London admitted he'd accepted a wager of 10 guineas to run naked from Cornhill to Cheapside. Not bad money if you can get it. Over $2000 in today's money.

Students took to it with some gusto over the years, but it was 170 years before streaking was really popularised, perhaps most by one Harold Ray Ragside, known on vinyl as Ray Stevens, who in March 1974 released the No 1 hit The Streak, with its famed line, "Don't look, Ethel".

It wasn't until 1982 we heard of Erika Roe, a diversion during an England v Australia rugby test at Twickenham, and sometimes, erroneously, being referred to as the first streak.

Streaking ain't going away, but out of last week has emerged a review of security at rugby tests, which is perhaps good. At least it's only been a lone streaker who's brought this to a head. It could have been a bomber, a hooligan (as in soccer), a riot, maybe.

In the end, the punters pay. There'll be over 200 security staff at tonight's match between the All Blacks and the Springboks in Wellington, costing at least $60 each.

But don't blame that on the streaker. If they stop a bomber, or a riot, it may be just as well there was a streaker at McLean Park.