Is There Anything More Intimidating in Sports???

I'm wearing an AllBlacks golf shirt today......how about that.

 

Anyone else slightly disturbed the team is called "AllBlacks"? It just doesn't settle with me.

 

That might be your dumbest post yet.

 

I would be much more intimidated by the skill of the team than by that routine.

It was comical.

 

Thanks. I'll keep trying.

In the meantime you keep worshipping a bunch of jackasses in shorts screaming and punching their chests and telling yourself it really isn't idiotic and a waste of energy.

 

That Haka in the first post is the new one written specifically for the All Blacks. This is the original ...

which I think is much better.

 

I don't worship them. I respect their athletic ability and their deference to tradition.

 

OK, I just don't get it. Looks like a bunch of physical freaks slapping their elbows and yelling.

What's the big deal? If a football team did that, everyone would be up in arms about how it's showing up the opponent and they should let their skills speak for them. But suddenly, this is awesome?

I'm fine with not getting it.

 

That's gotta be in the team picture for one of the coolest moments in sports.
I can imagine Old Chicago Stadium had quite the pre-game atmosphere before a Blackhawks game. Shoot, even at the UC, when they suck, it's an electric atmosphere.

 

An explanation ...



The first haka in an overseas representative rugby match was performed by the New Zealand Native Team to tour Britain in 1888-89. The drawing shown below originally came from Illustrated London News, and depicts the very first haka performed in Britain by a New Zealand rugby team. It is entitled, rather endearingly, "Their war cry before starting play".

It isn't clear whether or not it was Ka mate which they performed, but it is probable. At some venues they went to some considerable trouble to impress, bringing out mats and other items onto the field to complement the performance.

The team was not entirely composed of Maori, as many assume. The main organisor and instigator of the tour, Joe Warbrick added four pakeha players to the squad in order to provide a more balanced combination, and in the process renamed the sqad from The New Zealand Maori Team to avoid misunderstandings. A fifth pakeha was also added just before they set sail, to don the jersey of Warbrick himself because of injury.

No discussion on the haka and New Zealand rugby is complete without mentioning that most powerful of kiwi icons, the Silver Fern.

The Native Team was the first to wear a black uniform with the Silver Fern on the left breast. It also included in its ranks one of the founding fathers of rugby in this country, the legendary Tom Ellison whose contribution to the game subsequent to this tour was truly immense. Ellison invented wing forward (flankers) play, conceived the 2-3-2 scrum, and authored that most famous of all New Zealand rugby books The Art of Rugby Football. His incisive and innovative mind was responsible for giving New Zealand a head start in the playing of the game and his thoughts on how it should be approached provided an impetus which is felt even today. Had he not suffered an untimely death at the age of 36, who knows how much more he would have done toward that end. In the 1890's Ellison served as selector and administrator of the Wellington Rugby Union, and during the first annual meeting of the NZRFU, following its formation in 1892, he proposed a motion that the New Zealand representative team adopt the black uniform and silver fern. The rest, as they say, is history.

In 1905 the first ever officially sanctioned overseas tour by a representative New Zealand rugby side took place when "The Originals" visited Britain. It was on this tour that the name 'All Blacks' was coined, and that the first haka was performed by a team bearing that name. The two most distinctive features of the New Zealand team were thus instigated right from the very beginning.

The haka became a permanent fixture for the All Blacks from then on. An interesting little anecdote is told regarding the 1924 New Zealand team which became known as the famous "Invincibles", due to their winning every match on tour. This team had as their most famous son, a young maori boy called George Nepia. He it was who led the All Black haka, in the first match against Devon on September 13th, 1924. The haka was enthusiastically received by the crowd of 18,000 who were then treated to an 11-0 All Blacks win, however a "prominent university sportsman" who attended was moved to write a letter which appeared in the next day's paper. In it he asserted: "Cat-calls were quite uncalled-for", and added: "South Africans do not open their games with Zulu cries!". Obviously, this gentleman had never visited either country.

The words of Ka mate, "The Haka" do not of course have direct relevance to rugby, and were composed in particular circumstances as recounted above. Bearing in mind the 100-plus years of tradition, some of it bordering on the legendary, and letting poetic license run wild a 'loose' translation of the haka challenge might well be expressed thus..

"We are the All Blacks, of the New Zealand people."

"We stand on this field arrayed for battle."

"At our backs we feel the might of tradition wrought by those who have gone before."

"Over our hearts we bear the Silver Fern, emblem of mana to die for."

"This challenge is now thrown out to you. Take it if you dare for we will not withold ourselves this day and the faint of heart will surely be lost."

Whiti te ra! Hi!

 

They might be great athletes. Their dance is still stupid.

 

Cool. You actually have something in common with people of athletic ability then.