The All Blacks performing a spirited haka before their 46-14 victory over Ireland in the Rugby World Cup quarter final match at Tokyo Stadium, Japan. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
The All Blacks performing a spirited haka before their 46-14 victory over Ireland in the Rugby World Cup quarter final match at Tokyo Stadium, Japan. Photo / Mark Mitchell.
By Zinzan Brooke for the UK Telegraph
One thing I have never understood about the haka is the opposition to it from some people in the modern game.
I am a New Zealander of Māori descent and have been performing the haka since school level, it lives with me allthe time. As a player, I was lucky enough to perform it in front of several different opponents. Two in particular have always stayed with me.
My first haka with the All Blacks was at the 1987 Rugby World Cup against Argentina. I was only told the day beforehand that I would be leading it as I was the only Māori player in the side. I was incredibly nervous, it was my first cap, only 21 years old, but a great privilege.
The other one that sticks out was when the Springboks had come out of international isolation and we played them at Ellis Park in Johannesburg in 1992. We were the first team they had faced for years and the atmosphere was absolutely brilliant.
The All Blacks performing the Haka before the RWC pool match against Canada at the Oita Stadium, Japan. Rugby World Cup. Photo / Mark Mitchell
I am puzzled as to why the haka has become a talking point. It is part of rugby tradition, and performing similar war dances before matches means just as much to Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Traditions are just as important now as they used to be.
The haka will never teach you how to play rugby. If you, as the opposition, want to interpret the haka as an advantage, then it is only in that moment that it actually becomes beneficial to New Zealand.
I have seen the opposition allowing themselves to be intimidated by the haka. But it can also have no effect whatsoever. In Perth earlier this year, the All Blacks performed a great haka, then Australia tore us to pieces.
The haka does not teach you skill-sets, or what is required to win Test matches. TJ Perenara might lead the haka, but it does not lead to him making audacious offloads for tries like against Namibia. That was just a moment of sublime skill. It does help the leader galvanise the group into thinking you are taking on the world.
The haka began evolving into something meaningful when Wayne "Buck" Shelford was playing for New Zealand in the late 1980s. We made sure we understood the history, it was reset and redialled.
Before that, people did not really speak about what the haka meant, the guys would have just done it and set the precedent, not necessarily understanding what it was for.
It is now a great performance but it is only one part of the jigsaw. The harder bit is the 80 minutes that follows.
Rugby All Black tour of South Africa 1996 Justin Marshall and Zinzan Brooke celebrate as the All Blacks win 33 - 26 over the Springboks at Pretoria. Photo / Paul Estcourt.
The essence of doing it is to get yourself pumped and the adrenaline going. Think about Richard Cockerill and Norm Hewitt in 1997 at Old Trafford and their confrontation in the middle, people love that. It was a proper stare down. It fires everyone up.
I have no problem with opposition supporters making noise during it, such as the Irish last weekend, the 16th man, trying to offset the All Blacks' haka routine by singing their hearts out. New Zealand just get on with it.
With New Zealand meeting England again at a Rugby World Cup, memories of the drop-goal I scored at Newlands back in 1995 are revived. I practised drop goals into the thousands, but in matches I only attempted three - and I scored them all, so I have a better conversion rate than Dan Carter and Jonny Wilkinson!
There was the semi-final against England in 1995, another facing the Springboks in the first-ever Test series the All Blacks won in South Africa in 1996 and against Wales at Wembley in 1997, while the Principality Stadium was being built.
The one against England at Newlands, we were comfortably in the lead. Me trying a drop-goal was absolutely not part of the game-plan. It was just one of those things, straight out of the back garden. He hates me for reminding him of this, but Will Carling was the England player who kicked the ball to me before I struck the drop-goal. I tell him on a regular basis. He was trying to kick it into touch and sliced it!
Saturday's semifinal is going to be a tough old arm-wrestle. It would have made a great final, because I believe England and New Zealand are the two best teams and that the winner will go on to win the World Cup. It will be a proper ding-dong and this England side can deliver.
The All Blacks will have to not only repeat their performance against Ireland, but go up a notch or two from that. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and we get a cracking game.
