Internationals / Ralph Ellis / 14 November 2008 / Leave a comment

Ralph Ellis looks at the history of the Haka and how different opponents have dealt with it over the years. Then there's the small matter of England' s semi-final match against New Zealand once the dancing is over....

I've never quite understood the demand from New Zealand teams that whoever they are playing has to respect the Haka. They do a dance that's designed to intimidate their opponents, and then grumble if the same opponents try to intimidate them back. But there's little doubt that failing to respect the Haka is the very best way to make an All Blacks team perform to their absolute best.

Over the years sides have stood in the faces of the Kiwi players as they did their dance and tried to stare them down. They have watched from their own distance. They have formed their own circle and tried to ignore it. And famously at one game in Wellington in 1996 the Australians got on with a warm-up drill while it was going on, and then got beaten by a record score.

However you treat it, there's no doubt that the Haka gives any All Blacks side a psychological advantage at the start of a game. Which brings us to England's Rugby League World Cup side, and how they plan to deal with the stirring old war dance tomorrow morning in the semi-final.

Last week Tony Smith ordered his men to go into their own huddle and ignore the Haka. It caused a storm, but didn't seem to do England much harm as they romped into a 24-8 lead with some outstanding attacking play and a couple of quite dazzling tries. (Now I cannot tell a lie, having recommended backing England to win last week at odds of [2.52] I bottled it at that stage and laid them in running at [1.2] - which proved to be a very good decision as the second half went to pieces).

This week having suffered a barrage of criticism, Smith's side say they will front up to the Haka and give it respect by staring it down. That worries me, because it means that the stick that's been flying since they snatched defeat from the jaws of victory has got to the players. What they really need to do tomorrow morning is be strong to their own ideas, and if they thought going into a huddle and ignoring the Haka was the right thing to do last week, then it's still the right thing to do this time. Can you imagine a Sir Alex Ferguson team changing it's approach to a game because the papers didn't like it? No. Then why should any other?

That said there were signs in last week's match that England could yet turn this World Cup on its head, and I quite fancy going for the [2.7] on offer this morning for Smith's side to win. They will have learned some lessons from the slack second half display, and the attitude from a knock-out game - as opposed to a fairly meaningless pool match when both teams were guaranteed to get through - will be very much more alert. Mind you, whoever wins it won't stop Australia collecting the trophy. You can't even back them to win their semi-final against Fiji, and they are [1.16] to be World Cup winners.

Incidentally there's very little attention to how Ireland will deal with the Haka when they face the All Blacks at Rugby Union tomorrow evening. Ireland are as long as [5.5] to win so perhaps a machine gun might be the best answer!

Five things you might not know about the Haka

1.According to Maori legend it was created by Tana-rore, son of the Sun god Ra, to please his mother Tama-nui-te-ra

2.The earliest pictures of Maori warriors performing the dance before going into battle are as recent as 1845

3.The first New Zealand rugby union team to tour overseas in Australia in 1884 performed the Haka and it became a tradition from then on

4.The version traditionally used by the All Blacks, "Ka Mate", is not an intimidating war dance at all but a celebration of life over death

5.A new version "Kapa O Pango" was created in 2005 with words more specific to sporting contest, but a final movement that was a throat slitting action. This has subsequently been modified after protests that it was too violent