Captain Richie McCaw said the All Blacks
were offended at not being allowed to perform their pre-match haka
in front of Wales before notching a record win at Millennium Stadium
on Saturday.
The Welsh Rugby Union said it warned New Zealand six weeks ago
that the haka _ the Maori challenge the All Blacks have been
performing for more than a century _ could be done between the two
national anthems.
The All Blacks tried until the last minute to change the program
so they could do the haka, as usual, after the anthems and before
the kickoff.
But when the WRU wouldn't relent, the team did it in their
changing room.
``It just fired up the boys,'' McCaw said after New Zealand's
45-10 victory to end their successful rugby tour of Europe.
The Welsh crowd, unaware of the dispute, jeered the All Blacks
for not doing the haka on the field.
``The tradition needs to be honoured properly if we're going to
do it,'' McCaw said. ``If the other team wants to mess around, we'll
just do the haka in the shed. At the end of the day, haka is about
spiritual preparation and we do it for ourselves.''
Wales made the same request last year, and New Zealand said it
agreed to it only because it was the centenary of matches between
the nations.
``It's a 100-year-old tradition that the haka is done before
kickoff,'' New Zealand coach Graham Henry said. ``We agreed to the
change last year but we had a guarantee it wouldn't happen again.
But they (the WRU) asked us to do the same this year and we said
no.''
WRU chief executive Roger Lewis said they were respecting the
tradition of the haka, as a challenge worthy of a formal response,
in the form of the Welsh anthem.
He said Maori chiefs advised the WRU that it was appropriate, on
home ground, to respond to the haka.
``There was no disrespect intended on anyone's part, either on
the part of the New Zealanders by not doing the haka or by us for
offering to respond,'' Lewis said.
He added the WRU will take up the issue with the International
Rugby Board, as the haka and other similar challenges by the Pacific
Island teams were not part of pre-match rules.
© The Canadian Press, 2007
