KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks will be assured this week that they can perform the haka after the national anthems at the World Cup.
While officials are in Auckland to detail aspects of this year's tournament they are expected to confirm the IRB will not be pressured into changing tradition.
In recent seasons there has been increasing opposition towards the haka, with the Welsh Rugby Union insisting it be performed before the national anthems last year in Cardiff.
In 2005, the All Blacks agreed to perform the haka before the Welsh sang Land of My Fathers in the opening game of their Grand Slam tour, only because it was the 100th anniversary of their first game in Cardiff and the Welsh wanted to replicate the order of events in 1905.
When the Welsh insisted on the same order in 2006, the All Blacks did the haka in the changing rooms.
The shenanigans in Wales, where the All Blacks could potentially play a World Cup quarter-final this year, led to fears more conflict could arise.
But the IRB will confirm protocols are in place to ensure any nation that has traditionally performed a haka or other challenge - New Zealand, Fiji, Tonga and Samoa - can do so at the World Cup after the national anthems.
That will be a relief to the New Zealand Rugby Union who spent months talking with the Welsh. The frustration for the NZRU was not so much that the talks failed to reach an amicable conclusion but that they were taking place at all.
The haka, having been performed without any real fuss for the better part of 30 years, has lately become a heated issue.
Opposition teams have encouraged non-official responses such as the singing of Waltzing Matilda in the final seconds before Bledisloe Cup games while English crowds have boomed out their adopted anthem Swing Low Sweet Chariot.
Since 2005 there has also been debate about the Kapa O Pango haka which concludes with a throat-slitting gesture.
With protocols in place, the NZRU and players can be secure in the knowledge that the pre-match routine will be the same before every test.
