All Blacks Nearly Ditched Haka
deepseescribing > 06/11/2014, 23:04
The haka ranks among the most iconic sights in rugby, if not all of sport. It has been indelibly associated with New Zealand for the past century, Yet it was 10 years ago on this same tour to the northern hemisphere that senior All Blacks voiced serious reservations about whether it was a tradition worth preserving.
The choreography itself was not a problem, all the moves had been learnt by heart since the team were children. The issue was that the haka had become divorced of its significance and meaning in the 21st century. Ka Mate Ka Mate, a 19th century song about a Maori warrior’s debt to a hairy man for hiding in his sweet potato pit, had lost its connection to a team of largely Polynesian and European descent.
“Back when Graham Henry took over in 2004 we went through a period we were asking questions about the haka,” Gilbert Enoka, the New Zealand mental skills coach, said. “A lot of the guys said ‘hang on, I’m not sure if we even want to do it anymore. Perhaps this is no longer for us.’
“I think we had just lost that connection. New Zealand being a bicultural nation and that connection to who they were as New Zealanders and the bringing together of the different cultures.”
Worse it was acting as a distraction before kick-off as film crews rammed microphones and cameras ever closer to the players’ faces. “We talked about how it was a burden sometimes for the boys during the haka because the camera was in your face and you were doing it for the wrong reasons,” Aaron Mauger, the former Leicester centre, said at the time. “It was becoming a sideshow.”