All Blacks: Haka faces UK challenge

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Clearly there are some folk in this part of the world who will only be happy when every last vestige of All Black tradition is destroyed.

The vexed issue of the haka has surfaced again, like it does on every northern tour, with the English in particular troubled by its existence.

Why this pre-match theatre bothers them so remains one of rugby's more curious anomalies.

Maybe it upsets their vision of world order - giving the colonials, who are already rude enough to win consistently, their minute in the limelight is perhaps a step too far.

Maybe they are genuinely threatened by the challenge or hold this burning sense of disadvantage that they are somehow giving New Zealand a needless psychological head-start.

Whatever the source of the angst, it is entirely curious that the All Blacks breeze through the Tri Nations without there being a peep about the haka. Then they come to the UK and hear endless droning about why it is the scourge of the game.

Mostly the critics are those let loose with keyboards and a bent to make a name for themselves. They froth about the cultural injustice of allowing one side an expression of national identity and not the other.

The latest bout of feverish commentary stems back to the discovery earlier this year that the IRB have locked-in protocol for next year's World Cup as to how teams should face the haka. Any team that doesn't line up on their 10 metre line during the performance and stay there throughout will be fined.

Understandably, some countries have taken exception to being told how they must behave. To allow the All Blacks to do the haka is one thing, but surely to be ordered into subservience; into a position of paralysed, reverence-like awe is too much to expect?

Freedom of expression is granted to the All Blacks but not their opponents. That's how some commentators see it and there is validity to the argument that teams should be free to face the haka in any way they choose.

Yet, where the British griping loses its way is when the attention turns to analysis and significance of the haka. The commonly held perception appears to be that this protocol has been requested by the All Blacks; that they have imposed it for cultural requirements.

No such request has ever been made and the All Blacks care not how opposition respond. What actually happens is that the northern hemisphere teams beat themselves up trying to figure ways to nullify the haka; to negate the psychological energy and win some sort of mental victory before the game kicks-off.

The British Lions of 2005 got themselves into an awful mess facing the haka before the first test and conspiracy theories still abound that the tackle on Brian O'Driscoll in the first seconds was driven by anger that he and the team he captained had been culturally insensitive.

It's a great theory but for the fact it is abject nonsense, as much guff as has been written in recent weeks about the commercial hi-jacking of the haka and the confused notion ka mate has been re-written to reflect the greater Pacific Island element in the team when in fact an entire new haka Kapo O Pango was written to reflect that.

If the moral outrage could just be checked for a second, the English would realise the protocol has been devised by the IRB, to discourage teams from spending inordinate amounts of time strategising their response and turning the pre-game stuff into the main event.

The point of the legislation is not to allow the haka glorious isolation, it is in fact driven by a desire for the opposite outcome - a quick, clean performance that does not become the headline for all the wrong reasons.

Which is why it was refreshing to hear Scotland coach Andy Robinson discuss the matter. "I like the haka," Robinson said. "I think that actually you can pull yourselves together when you're facing it. You can lose your focus on the game if you over-analyse it.

"There's no point being over-psyched by it. Let's go out there and enjoy it. The haka is a fantastic thing to face. It should really give you a big lift, to say, 'I'm ready to take you on'."

No fuss, no dramas, no complaints - that feels like the way to go; accepting that the haka is nothing more than a ritual and one that the paying spectator still wants to see and still values.

Lest those pushing for the axing of the haka forget, crowds in the first weekend of the autumn internationals were massively down on last year's corresponding fixtures.

The newly built Lansdowne Road was barely half full for its grand re-opening and there were only 44,000 at the Millennium Stadium when there were 58,000 for the same game last year.

Rugby needs all it can get and the haka is a ritual, nothing more, that gives the game depth of history and tradition and most important, bums on seats.