Rugby: Ex-AB: haka doesn't slow us down

Fans expect to see the haka. Photo / Getty Images.

Former captain says if anything the performance pumps up the team

A former captain has rubbished a suggestion that the haka is to blame for the All Blacks' slow start to games and leaves them emotionally drained.

New Zealand's pre-match haka may be one of sport's most famous rituals and is often claimed to intimidate opposing sides, but now its benefits to the All Blacks are being questioned. Their reputation for being slow starters from the kick-off has led to suggestions they are emotionally drained from performing the haka, a traditional war dance once performed by Maori before battle.

But Tane Norton, who played hooker and captained the All Blacks to a series win over the British Lions in 1977, said the haka "pumped up" the team.

"The haka helps you focus on the game that you're going to play ... it's one of the things that any All Black would be proud of doing," he said.

"No, it doesn't leave anyone emotionally drained, I think it does quite the opposite for our boys and pumps them up for the game."

He said the haka was an intricate part of the New Zealand game, and also something the All Blacks were expected to perform.

"I remember once, I think it was in Wales, they stopped the All Blacks doing it and the Welsh crowd booed vigorously," Norton said.

"A lot of people go to watch it, to the spectators it's part of the entertainment and for our boys, it's just part of our game."

Lock Brodie Retallick's dropping of the kick-off when the All Blacks lost the Rugby Championship decider to Australia recently typified the bumbling start that has become synonymous with the All Blacks.

Coach Steve Hansen had previously questioned whether "we are over-aroused or under-aroused" as he sought ways to keep the All Blacks fired up from the time they left the dressing room until the opening whistle.

In theory the intense emotion channelled into the haka should give the All Blacks an edge as their opponents wait patiently for the theatrics to end. But when they get outplayed in the opening quarter, the question is raised whether the haka had removed them from the game strategies they focused on minutes earlier. Of their last 20 tests, the All Blacks were behind on the board in 11 of them before a second-half revival to win 17.

Halfback TJ Perenara admits the adrenalin from the haka often causes him problems early in a game.

"I was making mistakes. Trying to do too much. Trying to make too many tackles, and in my position, you don't make a lot of tackles."

On the other side of the halfway line, not everyone is intimidated.

Martin Bayfield recalled from his days with England and the British and Irish Lions that he found the haka inspirational.

"I didn't find the haka intimidating at all. In fact I found it motivational," the former lock said. "You need something to inspire - the haka does exactly that."

He was similarly lifted by the Welsh singing Land of My Fathers before a test and the French singing La Marseillaise.

There is no suggestion of the All Blacks doing away with the haka, which Richard Light, the head of the School of Sport at the University of Canterbury, describes as a "spectacular ritual that has a powerful influence on the team performing it".

Former All Black, Maori All Black and New Zealand Sevens player Dallas Seymour, now a consultant on Maori culture, does not buy into the theory the haka has an adverse effect - he says players must learn how to use it.

"It can be a real advantage for us. I found it got my head and my heart in the right place. A lot of it comes from learning about the culture, learning how to use it in that environment before going into battle," Seymour said.

"Regardless of what the opposition or anyone else thinks, it's us versus them and may the best team win with whatever tools are at their disposal. We don't need to apologise at all for that." AAP, additional reporting.