New York Times Sports columnist
George Vecsey has this to say on the Haka Controversy:
Dancing with the Stars, of RugbyImagine how the National Football League would handle this:
Moments before kickoff, the starters on one team face their opponents, chanting and shaking and gesturing and sticking out their tongues.
Then they draw their fingers across their throats in the universal throat-slitting gesture.
It is safe to assume the No Frivolity League would dole out penalties for taunting, or threatening, or unsportsmanlike conduct, or whatever it wanted to call it.
Rugby fans all over the world pay good money, however, to watch the All Blacks, the legendary national team of New Zealand, perform this famous Maori war dance, the haka, immediately before the match.
Now, after a century of tradition, the haka is under challenge. Last Saturday night in Cardiff, Welsh rugby officials insisted on relegating the haka before the playing of the Welsh national anthem. The touring All Blacks refused to go along, and performed their dance in the privacy of their locker room, thereby depriving the 74,000 fans of this familiar spectacle.
This incident raises some questions. In its own parochial little world, the N.F.L. does not allow Terrell Owens to stage choreographed skits or dances to celebrate a touchdown. In an age when national, religious and tribal sensitivities are on the rise, can rugby afford to let the highest-ranked squad in the world make a throat-slitting gesture in public?
As it happens, Graham Henry, the coach of the All Blacks, is in New York for a few days, on his way back from a four-match tour of Europe. Henry visited the Giants on Tuesday and is scheduled to visit the Yankees today, just to see how American doctors, trainers and officials do things.
Henry had some interesting reactions, particularly to the highly scripted world of American football. "We discuss strategy with the players," he said. "It's a collaborative effort. We think that's important."
Last Saturday, Henry said the haka was "about the players, really — it's not done for the fans." Yesterday he supported the players' decision to do their dance in private, saying, "There's no rule that says they have to do it."
Maybe not, but many patriotic Welsh fans arrived from the valleys and the seaside towns of that rugby-mad land expecting to see the Maori dance. In many countries, home fans anticipate the haka and then proudly try to drown it out. (In Australia, fans boom out "Waltzing Matilda.") The haka is part of the show. And Henry, as intense as Sir Alex Ferguson of Manchester United soccer or Bill Parcells of Dallas Cowboys football, scoffs at the idea that his lads intimidate similar brutes on the other team.
"Our boys get motivation from it," he said. "They're respecting their elders, what's gone on before."
It is strange to think of New Zealand ruffling feathers. The tiny and independent nation has addressed its racial history in recent years, with citizens of Maori and European background consciously trying to blend the two cultures. The national museum in the lovely little capital of Wellington is named Te Papa — Our Place in Maori. Tourists are greeted in Maori — Kia ora (hello and/or goodbye.) If you come back with Kia ora, you get a smile.
Rugby arrived in New Zealand in the 19th century thanks to Anglo settlers and sailors, and the early All Blacks were all white. (The name comes either from a typographical error instead of the intended All Backs, because the players were so mobile, or it refers to the black uniforms, or both.) In recent decades, players of Maori extraction have become a force, producing a mixed national squad of N.F.L. linebacker size and attitude. (Imagine an entire sport of Lawrence Taylors.)
Traditionally, the All Blacks do the Ka Mate (Tis death) version of the haka as the last act before the match begins. But in August 2005, before a match against South Africa, the All Blacks performed another version of haka called Kapa o Pango, ending with the throat-slitting gesture. The Australian coach, John Connelly, has been quoted as saying the new version could lead to "tragic consequences."
Also in 2005, to honor the centennial of Welsh rugby, the All Blacks agreed to allow the Welsh anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau," to be played just before a match. "We understood it was a one-off," Henry said yesterday.
After performing their dance in private last Saturday, the All Blacks romped all over Wales, 45-10, for their fourth straight victory on the trip, a tune-up for September's World Cup, to be based mostly in France but with a few matches in Edinburgh, Scotland, and Cardiff.
The International Rugby Board is on record that teams that traditionally perform the haka (Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, along with New Zealand) will be allowed to demonstrate before World Cup matches in 2007.
New Zealand, currently ranked first in the world, has won only one World Cup, the first in 1987, reaching the semifinals in four subsequent World Cups. (The United States, ranked 14th in the world, is in a separate pool from New Zealand.)
Needless to say, athletes do not perform anything like the haka at soccer's World Cup, the Olympic Games or cricket matches. ( David Stern better hope National Basketball Association players do not glimpse a video of the haka.)
Rugby has its own world — a mix of blood-letting and ear-mangling on the field, respectful fellowship off the field. If the Welsh went to Cardiff for a sighting of the Maori dance, while hoping for a Welsh upset, I say more power to all of them. Other nations, however, are likely to take a cue from Welsh officials and try to minimize the haka. My advice to the All Blacks would be: lose the throat-slitting fast, lest you lose the haka itself.
