Following on from yesterday’s blog I thought I’d share some more on the All Black’s haka and an American connection.

A number American High School and College Football teams have adopted and adapted haka and are performing variations of the haka used by the All Blacks, ‘Ka Mate‘ and ‘Kapa O Pango‘, as well us other haka from New Zealand and around the South Pacific. And it’s not just Hawai’i, where they have their own Polynesian traditions, but also in many other states including Texas, Utah, Nevada, Florida and Arizona – there are even a couple British American Football teams who are know to have performed haka.

Here’s the Bingham High Miners performing their haka…

Other U.S. football teams adopting haka include the San Mateo Bulldogs, Upland High School, Brigham Young University Cougars, Liberty High School and many, many others.

Now I’d like to share what I think are some great All Black’s haka moments. Traditionally you would respond to a haka with a haka of your own, which is what the Polynesian teams do, but most team’s do not have a haka or an equivalent, so it’s hard for them to know just how to respond. The worst thing you can do is ignore it.

In 1996 the Australian’s chose to ignore the haka and run through warm-up drills instead. They then suffered their greatest ever defeat, losing 43-6 to the All Blacks. The Italians ignored the haka in 2007 and were thumped 76-14. In 2006 the Welsh would only let the All Blacks perform the haka before the anthems rather than right before kick off, the All Blacks performed the haka in the changing room to the disappointment of the Welsh crowd, and then went out and beat the home team 45-10.

A number of nations have developed their own responses to the haka, Australians sing ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and the English sing ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’. Both are good responses, but below are what I think are the best responses to the challenge of the haka…

In 1997, Englishman, Richard Cockerill went toe-to-toe with his opposite number Norm Hewitt while they performed the haka. The referee became so concerned that Hewitt and Cockerill would begin fighting that he pushed Cockerill away from Hewitt. Cockerill went on to say afterwards “I believe that I did the right thing that day,” he said. “They were throwing down a challenge and I showed them I was ready to accept it. I’m sure they would rather we did that than walk away.”

Normally, at the conclusion of the haka, both teams would get into position for the kick off. In 2008, Wales simply stood their ground. Both teams stood, staring at each other for over 2-minutes and the referee pleaded with them to begin the game. The Welsh had managed to get into the All Black’s heads a bit with this response and the All Blacks went on to not beat Wales by as much as they normally would have.

When Irish club side, Munster, played the All Blacks in 2008, the four New Zealanders in the side stepped forward and performed “Ka Mate” before the All Blacks.

And this is, in my opinion, the best response ever. I think that this response got inside the All Black’s head and set the platform for their defeat in the 2007 World Cup. The video doesn’t quite capture it, so I’ll explain. It’s the World Cup quarter final. The home side, France, came on to the field wearing track suits, as the All Blacks prepared for the haka, the French side took of their track suits and a third of the team were wearing red shirts, a third wore white shirts and a third wore blue shirts. So, when they lined up on half way in front of the All Blacks performing the haka, the formed a 22-man strong French flag in front of the All Blacks. The highly under-rated French side then went on to defeat the All Blacks. It was the All Blacks earliest ever exit from the World Cup.