These two nations are two of the best rugby teams in the world, sharing the past three World Cups between them, New Zealand winning in 2015 and 2011 and South Africa in 2007. They were in the same group this year and played each other early on in the group-qualifying matches. The game highlights below are worth watching for three reasons:
- The high quality of play.
- The haka by the New Zealand team at the beginning of every game.
The haka is a type of ancient Māori war dance traditionally used on the battlefield, as well as when groups came together in peace. Haka are a fierce display of a tribe’s pride, strength and unity. Actions include violent foot-stamping, tongue protrusions and rhythmic body slapping to accompany a loud chant.
As you can see, it is a highly aggressive performance, designed to intimidate the opponents and gain a psychological advantage even before the game begins.
- You get to see a third form of scoring in addition to the try and penalty goal that I discussed in an earlier post and that is the drop kick goal that scores three points. This is where, while play is going on, the ball carrier drops the ball and just after it bounces off the ground, he kicks it and it goes between the uprights. A drop kick goal is relatively rare. It is not easy to pull off since you have little time and space to aim carefully given the fast pace of the game and that defenders are bearing down on you. This happens at the 14:20 mark and you can see it more clearly in the slow motion replay.
[OT]
In Australia, “drop kick” may be used as an epithet.
(The drop kick is also called a punt, if you wonder about its origin)
John @1: A punt involves kicking the ball before it bounces. For a drop kick, you kick it just after the bounce; like a half-volley in soccer.
A drop kick needn’t be an attempt to score. It’s also used for the kick-off.
Regarding the haka; it can also be a fond farewell.
Rob, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punt_(Australian_football)#Drop_punt
John @4: That article is about Aussie rules footie, not rugby. And even there punt kick is distinguished from the drop punt.
Trust the Aussies to make terminology more confusing.
On closer reading; the drop punt in Aussie rules isn’t like a rugby drop kick at all. It’s kicked before it bounces.
I am always left wondering why the opposition teams stand to attention while the haka is performed. I’d be inclined to point and laugh or turn my back.
And before you accuse me of disrespecting Maori culture, the haka is intended to intimidate, so what better antidote to intimidation is there than laughing or ignoring?
In 2007 the Welsh team announced they would perform “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” after the haka. The All Blacks got the sulks and performed in the sheds, rather than face the lyrical voices of the Dragons.
I’d love to hear the pipes and “Scotts Wa Ha’e” in response.
I watched the South Africa versus Namibia game the other day and the fullback for South Africa got a beautiful dropkick from a long ways out. He was not under any serious pressure so he had lots of time, still it was a superb kick.
Roj Blake @7: Watching respectfully and then doing a 15-man performance of “Puttin’ On The Ritz“. That’s the ticket.
Best ever response to a Haka.
The year after the All Blacks “performed” in the sheds.
Gotta love the Dragons.
Roj Blake @10: Can’t top the Irish.
Re:Haka -- “As you can see, it is a highly aggressive performance, designed to intimidate the opponents and gain a psychological advantage even before the game begins.”
That is a misunderstanding, it is not intended to intimidate (it also doesn’t advantage the All Blacks -- it appears to cost them by taking energy from their game start).
It’s just our way of saying hello and announcing an event.
There’s a lot of silliness said about it, with some precious fools getting in a twist about how oppositions react to it (standing up to it or turning their backs) and demanding rules to ‘respect it’. It’s entirely peoples own business how they want to react -- if they want to confront it as a challenge and stare the All Blacks down or treat it with purposeful disrespect that’s their choice.
If you want to see an electrifying reaction to such a thing watch a game between Tonga and Samoa (two places with similar customs and not much love for each other).
“I am always left wondering why the opposition teams stand to attention while the haka is performed. I’d be inclined to point and laugh or turn my back.”
You can find videos on YouTube of collated responses with different teams trying different responses. There’s a lot of nonsense talked about it that really gets my goat with precious twats trying to demand people behave this or that way -- how teams respond is entirely their own concern and others trying to insist they obey an etiquette imposed on them always strike me as interfering busy bodies.
fentex,
Hm. I personally think it’s also a way to get themselves “in the mood” for the contest, to pump themselves up.
(But I have no expertise, obs)
fentex @#12,
It intention may not be to be intimidating but its effect sure looks it.
Rob Grigjanis @ 11, great effort by the Irish, but after that the IRU changed the rules so the opposition team are prohibited from crossing the 10-metre line. This is not in keeping with the spirit of a haka, as one may respond to a haka with a haka of one’s own, or with any other form of challenge. On a Marae, it is not uncommon to see simultaneous opposing hakas.
As fentex says interfering busybodies.
To me the haka as an intimidation looks so much over the top that it becomes great fun. So is the sport itself, so I think the haka perfectly in place.
To me the haka as an intimidation looks so much over the top that it becomes great fun.
I think its a bit like Australian Aboriginal bone pointing and Christian faith healing. It only works on believers.
#7 Roj
I thought such things were expressly forbidden at some point, on the grounds of that being disrespectful or something. For some reason, there is just an exception for New Zealand.
“It intention may not be to be intimidating but its effect sure looks it.”
You remind me of once reading an English reporters complaining about how it intimidated the English team and my thinking how annoyed I’d be, were I an English player, for people to be thinking I was scared by such a thing.
“I thought such things were expressly forbidden at some point, on the grounds of that being disrespectful or something. For some reason, there is just an exception for New Zealand.”
There sort of is -- because people get all het over it some rules have been established -- both teams have to remain behind their five meter mark (dotted lines marking five meters inside each sides half) and many twats get quite pompous about respecting culture with no thought of how other cultures think to respond to apparent challenges. It’s all bollocks that the players have to avoid getting tangled up in so they just keep quiet while others bitch about it.
New Zealander’s do hakas, for various reasons on different occasions. How others respond to it is their business.
NZ sport in general has gotten a bit silly about it, performing hakas at any excuse and it’s often less to do with expressing themselves than it has to do with hopping on the All Blacks tails.
Anyone who’s concerned it’s an issue with the All Blacks can just ask their opponents for their opinion -- does it scare them, do they want it banished? I rather suspect they’d feel insulted to be asked.
@ fentex
There may be haka that are intended to be welcoming, but the performance Mano linked to looks a lot like what is described in Wikipedia as:
I like that in the linked video, white players perform alongside their indigenous teammates, and nobody seems too worried about “cultural appropriation”. I think in other cultures, whites performing an indigenous ritual would be seen as being, as the kids say, “problematic”.
“…nobody seems too worried about “cultural appropriation”.”
In the 1970’s it got a bit… awkward… because the All Blacks didn’t do it with a lot of, well, commitment and there were rumblings that it was bit insensitive to apparently play act at it -- no one’s ever been concerned about ‘appropriation’ but some did begin to feel a bit insulted by insincerity.
Then in the 1980’s the All Black Buck Shelford (eventually to become captain) decided they needed an education and leadership in doing it right -- and revitalized the whole exercise.
@Roj Blake
This might reflect the times when I watched rugby ( a certain Jonah Lomu was around) -- but most teams were likely to lose to New Zealand. Pointing and laughing would certainly look worse when that happened.
Plus almost no one(Except Australians?) dislikes New Zealanders to actually disrespect them.
Maybe the best thing that opponents can do during a haka is ignore it by continuing their team huddle until it is over.
Mano @23: I don’t get that. The haka is a wonderful thing to watch and hear. I’d take it as a sign of respect, and repay the respect by either watching, or responding in kind.
After one of fentex’s comments, I looked on youtube for a Tonga vs Samoa match. The Tongans call their dance Sipi Tau, the Samoans call theirs Siva Tau, but they and the haka seem closely related, as the people and their languages themselves are.
Both sides did their dances at the same time, with the Samoans finishing first. And when the Tongans finished theirs shortly after, the Samoans applauded them.
From the horse’s mouth:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/30/no-problem-at-all-new-zealanders-praise-englands-response-to-all-blacks-haka