Blues haka to honour Jonah Lomu and Kurtis Haiu

The Blues pre-match haka will be performed in honour of fallen players Jonah Lomu and Kurtis Haiu. Photos / Fotosport and Photosport

Tonight's Blues pre-match haka will be performed in honour of fallen players Jonah Lomu and Kurtis Haiu.

Blues high performance manager Tony Hanks said the decision to commission their own haka was inspired by the deaths of Lomu and Haiu.

Lomu began his Super Rugby career with the Blues in 1996. The All Blacks legend died at the age of 40 in 2015 from a heart attack.

Haiu played 53 times for the Blues between 2006 and 2011. He died at the age of 31 last year after a prolonged battle with cancer.

"We realised we had something missing when we lost a couple of really important players from here - Kurtis Haiu and Jonah Lomu," revealed Hanks, a former Wasps and Sale head coach who has been the Blues' high-performance manager since 2014.

"With New Zealand and the way we mourn, you have the haka or a song. So we felt we had something missing and we needed something to represent us.

"We had one of our local boys that played for our development side a bit who played for Auckland come up and he worked closely with Tana (Umaga, the Blues head coach) to capture things around the area.

"We talk about who we represent across the region - it's about who's coming next and we talk a lot about aspiration and we try to capture who we represent.

"This is an aspirational piece for us with the big crowd, and performing the haka for the first time. These guys have got a big responsibility and we take that seriously.

It will be the first time the Lions have faced a haka outside of tests against the All Blacks and clashes against New Zealand Maori.

The Blues' haka is called He Toa Takitini (The Strength of Many), to reflect the many cultures in the squad.

The Crusaders and Chiefs are also due to perform hakas before their matches against the Lions.