gunnamatta bay
Referee
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If this man sets foot in NZ should he be immediately arrested and publicly executed? What form should the execution take?
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3886995a1823,00.html
ABs' precious haka arrogance a joke
03 December 2006
The man New Zealanders love to hate, controversial British rugby writer Stephen Jones, puts the boot into the haka.
Is there any end to the preening, pretentious pomposity of the All Blacks? It seems that every sporting team in New Zealand has to take part in the national blind obsession, whether they want to or not.
spac_writeAd("/site=s/method=jscript/area=s.stuff.sport/aamsz=212x105_SponLink1/ch=");Every Kiwi national team has to mimic the Blacks with their own name - Black Ferns, Black Caps, Tall Blacks and so on -although the Kiwi badminton team ran into trouble by calling themselves the Black c**ks.
One of my colleagues has a new name for the All Blacks, by the way. The Black Toenails.
"Why so?" we asked him. "Because they are so far up themselves these days that their toenails are all that's left visible," he said.
It was a very good point indeed. Do they not realise that the rest of the world has ceased to give a stuff about their precious haka and that their supreme, bullying arrogance is putting their own reputation, and that of rugby, in serious jeopardy?
Probably not.
How can you take a global view of anything when all you care about is yourself?
The All Blacks are labouring under the grossly mistaken impression that their action in performing the haka behind closed doors last week was some kind of heroic gesture. Frankly, I have not come across a single person in British rugby, or a single fan, who did not think that they looked ridiculous.
And that conclusion came before we even knew the details.
We did not know until later that, in order to parade their own childish petulance, they had hunted down a local camera crew from Wales, dragged them into the stadium on bogus accreditation and then offered the pictures to the BBC (and shame on the Beeb for taking them).
To make an honorable, dignified, private stand is one thing. To scurry round like embittered little dervishes to find anyone to show it, is completely another. They were given weeks of notice of the Welsh Rugby Union's intentions.
However important the haka is to some elements of New Zealand society, it does not come within a thousand miles -in terms of intensity or focus or significance - of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau(Land of My Fathers) for Welsh people. This is the national anthem.
The home team in rugby is the host, the organiser, it can set down any programme it wishes. And unless my geography has gone badly wrong, Cardiff is in Wales, not New Zealand.
The lack of respect shown by New Zealand for the Welsh nation, the horrible way in it tried to bully the Welsh union, was disgusting.
And please, please don't feed us that old rubbish that to perform the haka last is a great old tradition. To hell with that tradition. It is causing anger. If we carried on following old traditions no use to anyone, then we'd all be wearing boots with wooden studs, not paying our players, sitting in dangerous stadiums, having no replacements and having no coaches, and travelling on steamships.
Not one single national union we contacted in the past week felt that the All Blacks should dictate when the haka is performed any longer, on a foreign field.
Let us be crystal clear. The All Blacks have shattered their own tradition. The haka is no longer seen by them, let along their opponents, as some kind of shining cultural or sporting tradition. It is performed as a threat, a pose, an attempt to gain a playing advantage prior to kick off. It is no better, or worse, a ruse than secretly filming the opposition's sessions, cheating at the breakdown, searching their team room for documents.
The haka is an attempt to get an edge for the match, full stop. Every opposition team has the right to say no, our anthem is last and, if you don't like it, don't come.
New Zealand will miss its big payments to come here and play, far more than European teams will miss their pitiful share of a few New Zealand dollars.
I have no information of the subject but I would love to think that the Wales coaching staff was prominent in moves to have the anthem played last. It was searching for an edge, as were the All Blacks.
Why must every union quail in the face of New Zealand threat? If the home unions want to invite the All Blacks to do the haka an hour before the kick-off, or not at all, then fine. If the opposition wants to take the field after the haka, or if to continue its warm-up while it is being done, or perform a mincing Gay Gordon concurrently, that is fine, too.
New Zealand is perfectly entitled to regard itself as the fount of the best team in the universe, and it is favourite for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. What New Zealand is not, has never been and never will be, is the centre of the rugby universe.
It has no right to dictate to others on traditions that it has itself destroyed, by posturing. New Zealanders are precious about it when it is not challenged, precious about it when it is challenged. Precious, precious, precious. Maori culture is one thing. Having it stuffed down your throat is quite another.
· Stephen Jones is the senior rugby correspondent for the Sunday Times.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3886995a1823,00.html
ABs' precious haka arrogance a joke
03 December 2006
The man New Zealanders love to hate, controversial British rugby writer Stephen Jones, puts the boot into the haka.
Is there any end to the preening, pretentious pomposity of the All Blacks? It seems that every sporting team in New Zealand has to take part in the national blind obsession, whether they want to or not.
spac_writeAd("/site=s/method=jscript/area=s.stuff.sport/aamsz=212x105_SponLink1/ch=");Every Kiwi national team has to mimic the Blacks with their own name - Black Ferns, Black Caps, Tall Blacks and so on -although the Kiwi badminton team ran into trouble by calling themselves the Black c**ks.
One of my colleagues has a new name for the All Blacks, by the way. The Black Toenails.
"Why so?" we asked him. "Because they are so far up themselves these days that their toenails are all that's left visible," he said.
It was a very good point indeed. Do they not realise that the rest of the world has ceased to give a stuff about their precious haka and that their supreme, bullying arrogance is putting their own reputation, and that of rugby, in serious jeopardy?
Probably not.
How can you take a global view of anything when all you care about is yourself?
The All Blacks are labouring under the grossly mistaken impression that their action in performing the haka behind closed doors last week was some kind of heroic gesture. Frankly, I have not come across a single person in British rugby, or a single fan, who did not think that they looked ridiculous.
And that conclusion came before we even knew the details.
We did not know until later that, in order to parade their own childish petulance, they had hunted down a local camera crew from Wales, dragged them into the stadium on bogus accreditation and then offered the pictures to the BBC (and shame on the Beeb for taking them).
To make an honorable, dignified, private stand is one thing. To scurry round like embittered little dervishes to find anyone to show it, is completely another. They were given weeks of notice of the Welsh Rugby Union's intentions.
However important the haka is to some elements of New Zealand society, it does not come within a thousand miles -in terms of intensity or focus or significance - of Hen Wlad fy Nhadau(Land of My Fathers) for Welsh people. This is the national anthem.
The home team in rugby is the host, the organiser, it can set down any programme it wishes. And unless my geography has gone badly wrong, Cardiff is in Wales, not New Zealand.
The lack of respect shown by New Zealand for the Welsh nation, the horrible way in it tried to bully the Welsh union, was disgusting.
And please, please don't feed us that old rubbish that to perform the haka last is a great old tradition. To hell with that tradition. It is causing anger. If we carried on following old traditions no use to anyone, then we'd all be wearing boots with wooden studs, not paying our players, sitting in dangerous stadiums, having no replacements and having no coaches, and travelling on steamships.
Not one single national union we contacted in the past week felt that the All Blacks should dictate when the haka is performed any longer, on a foreign field.
Let us be crystal clear. The All Blacks have shattered their own tradition. The haka is no longer seen by them, let along their opponents, as some kind of shining cultural or sporting tradition. It is performed as a threat, a pose, an attempt to gain a playing advantage prior to kick off. It is no better, or worse, a ruse than secretly filming the opposition's sessions, cheating at the breakdown, searching their team room for documents.
The haka is an attempt to get an edge for the match, full stop. Every opposition team has the right to say no, our anthem is last and, if you don't like it, don't come.
New Zealand will miss its big payments to come here and play, far more than European teams will miss their pitiful share of a few New Zealand dollars.
I have no information of the subject but I would love to think that the Wales coaching staff was prominent in moves to have the anthem played last. It was searching for an edge, as were the All Blacks.
Why must every union quail in the face of New Zealand threat? If the home unions want to invite the All Blacks to do the haka an hour before the kick-off, or not at all, then fine. If the opposition wants to take the field after the haka, or if to continue its warm-up while it is being done, or perform a mincing Gay Gordon concurrently, that is fine, too.
New Zealand is perfectly entitled to regard itself as the fount of the best team in the universe, and it is favourite for the 2007 Rugby World Cup. What New Zealand is not, has never been and never will be, is the centre of the rugby universe.
It has no right to dictate to others on traditions that it has itself destroyed, by posturing. New Zealanders are precious about it when it is not challenged, precious about it when it is challenged. Precious, precious, precious. Maori culture is one thing. Having it stuffed down your throat is quite another.
· Stephen Jones is the senior rugby correspondent for the Sunday Times.
