What’s wrong with celebrating violent warriors? Violent warriors are cool and should be celebrated.
Richie, shouldn’t you be getting ready for the game? Assuming you are not actually a player, you should note that I said both that I would be ok for fans to perform this in the stands, and for a Maori-cultural-type ceremony to be performed as long as it was not directed at the opposing XV, and that it was modified so as to not have such a direct lineage from a war chant.
…no one is threatening to kick Dawson’s teeth in. As strongly as we feel about our culture, there is no reason to be precious about it and if someone wants to mock us that is their right. And threatening violence is just outright disgusting.
If the fans like it, direct it to the fans.
I thought Union was for gentlemen. If we wanted to pay people to entertain us, we would be watching League.
…feel free to mock the haka as much as you want. But if you want to mock me, then take it to the pit.
And as I said: what you want really doesn’t matter. You want to change 100 years of tradition? Good for you. Start up an online petition. Contact World Rugby directly. Here’s the website:
They would love to hear from you! If you want to make a difference, then do it properly.
The fans enjoy it as it is. Why should they change it to satisfy Mr Anonymous on an internet message board?
You obviously are “thinking wrong.” Rugby is a sport that is enjoyed by all sorts of people, not just “gentleman.”
Obviously a reference to the history. Union was played by proper gentlemen in southern England who could afford to take a weekend off to play. League was played by True Northerners™ who had jobs to do so if you wanted them to play you had to pay them. The rules then began to diverge.
Apparently you’ve only heard the first verse of our national anthem. It continues past the part about “the land of the free and the home of the brave”.
The third verse of The Star Spangled Banner:
A good way to catch a spy is to ask them to sing the second verse of the Star Spangled Banner. If they know it, they must be a spy (because most Americans don’t know anything past the first).
Florida State Seminoles.
The Florida State Seminoles are not “somewhat” sanctioned by the tribe, they are sanctioned by both the Florida and Oklahoma Seminole tribes. [Cite
](https://unicomm.fsu.edu/messages/relationship-seminole-tribe-florida/)
A neighboring city in my area (Dallas-Fort Worth) has a significant Tongan community, and many of them play for the high school football team. I don’t know if they still do it, but the entire team used to do a haka before their games.
It’s kind of interesting and amusing the first time or two you see one, but after that it just gets tiresome.
Moving to the Game Room for you.
You said “We do it for us”. Are you in fact an All Blacks Player who performs the Haka? Your haughtiness would indicate so. I was mocking, mildly, your indulgence in the common custom of including yourself on your favorite side.
…I’m Maori. Ngāpuhi. The haka is not just something the All Blacks do before every game for goodness sakes. I’m a kiwi who performs the haka. “We” is perfectly appropriate.
For the Hong Kong Sevens, about 10 -12 years ago Eric Rushaka “Rushie” and others got together. Given the fast nature of the Sevens, having the All Blacks do the Haka before every match ate up a huge amount of time. Not to mention that fact, that for the Hong Kong Sevens, pretty much all of the Pacific Island Nations participate. And all of the Pacific Island Nations do a version of the Haka. Therefore, when the All Blacks went up against Tonga or other Pacific Island Nations, emotions ran “pretty high”. So, Rushie and the other Pacific Nations all agreed that the All Blacks would only perform the Haka at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens if they won the championship.
Rushie is well respected, a good bloke, a practicing barrister, pretty amusing in person, and was a fixture at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens corporate event that my previous company sponsored and I managed for a couple of years. I like him a lot.
I think doing the Haka on a rugby pitch is ridiculous. I’m sorry, but the players just look silly. If I were the manager of a team going up against the All-Blacks, I’d get them to respond with the Hokey-Kokey 
That’s not going to have anyone agreeing the All Blacks are ridiculous.
Hmm…you could be right? How about Gangnam Style?
Memory fades but as best I recall, there was a watershed of criticism within New Zealand and internationally about 15 years ago. The All Black’s version of Kamate had become quite dramatically violent including a throat-slitting gesture.
Some Maori felt this had fallen into caricature and disrespected their culture. As a consequence the style was dialed back and what we see today is almost muted by comparison.
A small shame - powerful performances of any art form are interesting - can’t find a link.
They need to change the All Blacks name too. It’s just not PC