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Home / Sport / Rugby / All Blacks

Haka criticism masks real problem in UK rugby

Herald online
26 Nov, 2008 09:19 PM4 mins to read

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KEY POINTS:

One of the great treats of travelling through this part of the world is the public transport - national and international trains, buses, tube, DLR, CRS, black-cab, any cab.

The problem is the other 70 million people. Perhaps a little harsh but nonetheless true.

Still, whoever is in charge manages to get the job done and considering the size of the job they do it well.

Consider the logistics of moving all those All Black fans back to London on Sunday from Cardiff, plus all the 'Valley Welsh' back to their plots and dots, it would have been a massive effort.

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But not as big as cleaning up Cardiff on Sunday morning. A fearsome site for any recycler out there - almost as fearsome as the inflatable rugby ball sitting on the banks of the River Thames.

"What's that dad?"

"It's a Rugby ball dear."

"Then why does it look like an egg?"

"Because a Kiwi laid it."

To be honest it does help when as a Kiwi everyone over here immediately thinks of inflatable sheep and all the gags that go with it.

Personally I think we need to stay away from the 'inflatable' theme, especially if Australian league is anything to go by and the highly intelligent finical industry and the sub-prime mortgage sector.

Wales as anticipated were a handful, but the waiting game played by the All Blacks drew more energy from them they thought it would. And I suppose it would when you're the team that's made all the play in that half, done all the running, sapped all the nervous energy trying to break the Blackness

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However the moral superiority of the Welsh has remained intact, after the best response to the All Black haka any team on this tour could muster, which in true Welsh form was actually no response whatsoever. Brilliantly ironic, typically Welsh. A highly amusing way to start the game.

As usual the All Blacks scored more points but Wales didn't loose. Confused - don't be, that's just the way it is.

The haka has been 'inflated' by the media here. Now I see where New Zealand gets the Maori bashing from but it's all the home nation journalists can do when their teams are getting drubbed by the criminals, who've won nothing this year, but did place second in the Bledisloe Cup.

The fact is that New Zealand has a very dull and quite boring national anthem which none of use really like to sing. In fact, I think it's one of the only times where te reo doesn't make it better. It's dour, nonsensical and just sucks.

The home nations - with the exception of England - have handed us our choral arse, although England will do alright this weekend because we're not going to change songs in week are we? Unless it's too 'Slice of Heaven' or perhaps '6 Months in a Leaky Boat'.

But the noise about the haka is, well, a bit of a insight into the real problem -their rugby up here is a load of bollocks.

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And the focus on a piece of culture as offensive, intimidating, unfair and just outright mean perhaps highlights their inability to acknowledge anyone else's culture other than their own. Anything to take the focus off their team and its lack of ability at present.

Danny Cipriani has been sat down for this one. He got sat on his backside against the Wallabies, sat behind the try-line against the Springboks, now he's sat on the bench versus New Zealand.

And poor Toby Flood, who has done little wrong other than not try to be a tabloid media star, is now left with the prospect of saving England and Cipriani.

The Black back row will 'flood' the young fly half. He'll need an inflatable raft to survive.

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Much has been made of the Wales' 'non-response' to the haka last week. Photo / AP

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