Peter de Villiers surely did put the attention back on the Haka with his remark that over-performing it will impact on its effect.

The other side of the coin is that the more it is performed in the streets the more it connects the people to the tribe/nation.

I often get the impression that New Zealanders –especially the Islanders- have difficulty understanding that the rest of the world just don’t have the same romantic obsession with the Haka than them.

As an outsider one can feel that they just don’t get it namely that outsiders tolerate it and are not in awe of it. That outsiders are being polite and not overwhelmed by it when they make compliments and positive remarks about it.

For outsiders it is hard to understand how the Haka connects the individual to the Soul of the nation. For the kiwis the Haka is a serious war dance.

For the rest of us it’s a performance which includes facial contortions such as showing the whites of the eyes and the poking out of the tongue, and a wide variety of vigorous body actions such as slapping the hands against the body and stamping of the feet. As well as chanted words with a variety of cries and grunts.

If the Haka was not performed in total unison, this was regarded in war time as a bad omen for the battle.

In a sense it is almost like thieves/soldiers/spies or ninja’s synchronizing their watches before they embark on a mission. Psychologically speaking and in a rugby context the Haka potentially synchronises the team which produce greater cohesiveness.

Some New Zealanders could predict how the All Blacks will play by watching whether the Haka shows unity or lack of it.

I do believe the Haka has some psychological beneficial effect on team cohesiveness.

It is like a war cry before going into battle. A war cry that pulls the individual out of individualistic mind-set into tribal mind-set; taking the individual beyond I into we; where they lose inhibitions and start to engage in the battle of the group.

The war cry in short pushes the individual over the edge into battle lust; beyond the mind-set of focusing on personal survival towards battle madness.

The best example of how the Haka effect the individual is the famous incident between former All Black hooker Norm Hewitt had his opposite Richard Cockerill in 1997.

The All Blacks were about to start their match against England at Old Trafford when Cockerill got up close and personal with Hewitt, who led the All Blacks in the haka.

Hewitt said the following regarding this incident, which ended with pushing and shoving between the pair, and the English team standing toe to toe with the All Blacks:

“It was like there were only two people on that field. At one point I thought to myself ‘if I had a patu [club] I would have cut his head off’ and I was going into that place.

I don’t know why … it was a big game and we were going to war and he’s my enemy, [a] kill or be killed scenario”.

I also believed the Haka had much to do with creating racial integration and getting the Islanders (Maori and Samoans) to embrace the All Black team as theirs as opposed to playing for the white people’s team.

While the country faced some racial problems in the founding years it was provided with a “model combination of culture and creed” through the racial togetherness of rugby.

Keith Quinn in a TV interview illuminated on the awesome restorative and just powers of the Game.

“There was a strain of people in the 1970s who had a lot of prejudice against Samoans. Some people referred to them as FOBs, fresh of the boats, which wasn’t very nice, but this prejudice stopped the moment it was discovered Samoans could play rugby.”

Keith also had his own version of how Maori came to play the game. “I imagine in the past, last century, Maoris watched the pioneers playing the game and soon joined in,” he said.

It is unclear why the Haka was introduced into rugby before matches. It perhaps was more of an attempt to do something exotic –impress upon the audiences of Europe something of New Zealand’s exotic nature and culture- in the early years than a war dance.

The Springboks came up with a Zulu war dance in the early years most likely for the same reason and they persisted with it until 1928. All Black vice-captain of the 1928 All Black team to South Africa Mark Nicholls remembers the Springboks’ war dance as “not much of a success“. In all fairness neither was the All Black version of the haka in 1921 as can be seen in the next picture showing the 1928 All Blacks performing the Haka before the 3^rd test against South Africa.

The 1928 version of the Haka.

The 1928 Springboks performing a Zulu War dance at the start of the fourth test. 

The Haka has come a long way since those early days and it was transformed from a ridiculous looking calisthenics exercise (as can be seen on the next picture showing the 1905 All Blacks performing the Haka in the UK) into the fearsome war dance it is today.

The 1905 invincibles waving their arms in front of them like alzhemic old men, and looking pretty stupid performing their version of the Haka. 

It was Buck Shelford who revamped the rugby Haka when he became All Black captain in 1987. Prior to Shelford the rugby Haka was a poorly executed performance which neither motivated the All Blacks nor put fear into the hearts of the opponents.

Wayne ‘Buck’ Shelford decided if they were going to do it they should do it properly.

Buck took the team to Te Aute College where the students showed the ABs what it was all about. It was electrifying.

You got the impression that the All Blacks suddenly learnt how incredibly intimidating it could be to face a haka, they must have been intimidated by the Te Aute haka which was performed with the ferocity of unstinting pride.

The difference Buck made was obvious and huge. All subsequent shots of the Haka showed its sublime aggression to its fullest and you had to feel sorry for the English toffs that spoke of facing their first ever haka.

By the 1970s, after nearly 80 years of doing the haka, you might think the All Blacks would have had a fair idea of how to do it. Its history stretches back to 1888 when a New Zealand Natives side, containing five non-Maori, performed an unknown haka 17 years before the All Blacks did Ka Mate.

But footage from years past shows a gradual decline in its performance. And if the All Blacks’ 1973 showdown against the Barbarians was considered one the greatest matches ever, the haka before it was surely one of the worst.

The man credited with bringing mana back to the All Black haka, Buck Shelford, said the haka was “the bloody last thing” on his mind when he made the 1985 side that toured Argentina. A chat with Hika Reid changed things – and the way the All Blacks’ haka have been performed since. “I said to Hika, ‘if we are going to do it, we’re going to do it right, we are not going to disrespect our haka’.”

In 1987, the All Blacks went to Te Aute College, near Hastings, where 400 students gave an inspiring haka performance. “It went from there really, getting people into their lines and teaching people the actions, words and what it was all about.”

The All Blacks duly won the inaugural World Cup and Shelford started to notice the haka really “began to mean something”.

“Our Samoan boys like Joe Stanley and Michael Jones and our Pakeha boys, they really took to it and people wanted to see it. It gave us that mana over the opposition before you headed into the game.”

Below are a few clips of how the All Black Haka has evolved over the years!

The clips are in the following order.

Back in 1925:

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Then in In 1973:

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The Ka Mate in modern times:

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The Kapa o Pango done the first time before a test against the Springbok in Dunedin:

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The last clip is of a South African hockey team doing a Zulu war cry during a tournament.

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Pretty fearsome too.

Maybe it’s time that South Africa re-introduces a Zulu War dance before Springbok matches?