...except for when they wear this
Yeah, the 'All Blacks' white away kit. Something England could have whined over "We're the only team to play in white and our shirt is just as important to us as yours is to you." but they didn't, because it would have come across as churlish and petty. So why did New Zealand, a nation with such rugby stature, react this way? I believe it's indicative of a deeper problem that goes to the root of why they've gained the reputation as 'chokers'.
I'd like to inject this caveat here before I continue; I have a lot of love for New Zealand, I've visited the country and found it to be one of the most incredible places I've ever been to, with people who are friendly and accommodating to a fault. I'm also a huge admirer of the All Blacks. Any rugby fan who doesn't enjoy watching them play with that sublime balance of power and skill is either not a true fan of the sport, or that certain type of joyless fan who believes that the rolling-maul is the pinnacle of rugby skill and entertainment. But no matter how much weight New Zealand amass on the 'I Love You' side of my national fondness scale, they always go ahead and chuck a weight on the 'Oh Piss Off' side.
In spite of their almost continual dominance of the sport (expect when World Cups roll around) they can be surprisingly precious and thin-skinned, and it's not a new occurrence confined to shirt colours. The reaction of some opposition to the Haka, and New Zealand's following reaction to that, is a constant source of amusement to anyone who likes to see grown men have tantrums about dancing.
 |
| You wouldn't see Gaving Henson get so tetchy about dancing! |
I understand that the Haka is an important part of the All Blacks, and by extension, New Zealand's culture and identity, so I don't want to offend anyone here. I mean I wouldn't like it if people made mocking statements about Welsh culture and identity.
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| For example, our right to form sexual congress with sheep |
Personally I think the Haka is great with the way it lays down the challenge to the opposition, and it's much more exciting than how it's actually done...
to: New Zealand Rugby Union
from: Welsh Rugby Union
subject: re: Rugby
Dear Wales,
Fancy a game of rugby?
Fancy a game of rugby?
Kind Regards,
New Zealand
| Hiya New Zealand!
|
| Oh tidy like! Go on then butt.
|
| Oh tidy like! Go on then butt.
|
| Nice One,
| Wales
It's an exciting pre-cursor to the game and an entertaining sideshow to the day. So with that praise out of the way and my view of the Haka established (I'M FOR IT! For those of you not following) I can now start to criticise it. Well, not the Haka per se, but what goes on around it.
There are numerous examples of teams offering some kind of response to the Haka, usually by approaching the All Blacks or by simply standing their ground, a la Wales in 2008...
I was at that game, and while I didn't much care for the crowd chanting while the Haka was being performed, I thought the Welsh response was fantastic. It was quite honestly the best pre-match atmosphere I've ever experienced, as Wales wanted to respect the Haka but also answer the challenge. As Ryan Jones said:
"We wanted to show it was our stadium, our pitch and our fans and we weren't prepared to give up the ground"
To me this seems like a reasonable and spirited response, although responding by actually winning the game, which Wales lost 26-9, would arguably have been even better. The All Blacks however didn't see Wales response as reasonable at all, and Ma'a Nonu had this to say:
"What the Welsh did wound us up. People back home will have been hurt by what they decided to do. Standing in the way like they did is asking for a fight."
That last line I think is very telling, "Standing in the way like they did is asking for a fight". So what would be the correct response to the challenge from these rugby Übermensch? Lying down and not fighting? Meek acquiescence? Although even that has been too much for them to bear at times. Maybe the opposition should blow them kisses and shower them in rose petals to show how honoured they are to be graced by the presence of the All Blacks.
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| "Thank you New Zealand for this 30 point demolition we are about to receive" |
It appears that the All Blacks view themselves as existing somewhere above the messy swamp of 'mortal' international teams, as something more than just a rugby side. And maybe, that's because they are.
New Zealand is the only country in the world I can think of which has its identity so closely intertwined with sport. You mention 'New Zealand', and for most people, I'd wager the first associative thought to pop into their heads would be 'rugby'. No other country is so synonymously linked with a sport.
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| I was going to say 'Brazil' also is with 'football', but they're better known for something else. That's right, inequality. |
And this deep connection with rugby is something they embrace, and why not, they're bloody good at it! So, when you view the All Blacks in a national context rather than an international rugby context, their defensiveness becomes more understandable. When people 'disrespect' the shirt or 'disrespect' the Haka, they're disrespecting something that is at the very core of the New Zealand identity.
And this, I suspect, is why New Zealand have 'choked' at the last few World Cups. They have had talent in abundance every year since the World Cup started in '87, enough to win it more than the once that they actually have. But these high expectations coupled with a country that takes rugby so, so seriously must create an intolerable pressure on the players, where the failings of the team could be construed as a failing of the country. They're not just representing New Zealand, they are New Zealand.
When I started writing this piece I was working towards a conclusion that said "New Zealand, enjoy your colour, do your dance, but be real and accept that you will not have things your way in the modern professional era". But while writing and considering this piece, I've changed my mind...
"New Zealand, fuck everyone else".
New Zealand, I can't truly understand, even as a Welshman where rugby plays a huge role in our culture and identity, how important the All Blacks, their history and their tradition are to you. But I think you should fight for that iconic shirt and you should fight to keep the respect for the Haka, because with the cynicism of professional sports, everyone knows the price but not the value of such things. But I think that you do.
In fact, go further, show you are the true rugby purists, the ones who only play the game at the highest level because you hold it in the highest regard. You are already the only team not to defile your shirt with a garish sponsor, now ditch that cynical, pointless, nickle-and-diming white away kit. Show that it is possible not to bend to the will of the money masters and to exist with a higher purpose in mind.
And when you do need to fight for these things, when others do things you see as disrespectful to your heritage and legacy, don't belittle yourselves by responding with whiney complaints in the media. It sounds like insecurity and provides your defeated opponents with something to latch on to and hold up as diversion from their loss. You don't need to do this! Your actions on the rugby pitch provide a more forceful and clear reply than any post-match interview could ever offer. Next time a team faces-off to you at the Haka simply turn your backs on them when you're done, retreat into your own strength and then show, over 80-minutes, that they were fools for thinking they could match you.
I didn't mean for this post to get so worthy and 'deep' (or to be such a love letter to New Zealand), I was just going to have a pop at the All Blacks (what can I say, they're a big target and provide lots of opportunities for poking fun at them). But writing it made me consider how rugby has changed and how it continues to do so.
More money comes into the sport each year, and while this may lead to higher levels of athleticism and greater spectacles, it can also crush many of our traditions which are not deemed to be 'profit-making' and which damage the bottom line. This resonates very strongly with me as a Cardiff supporter.
There is only one club side in the whole world that has ever been inducted into the International Rugby Board's Hall of Fame, and that's Cardiff RFC. This is the team that pioneered the modern style of eight forwards and seven backs. This is the team that has supplied more players to the Welsh national side and the British & Irish Lions than any other. This was the club of Gareth Edwards, Barry 'The King' John, Gerald Davies and Cliff Morgan, some of the best there ever were, and in the case of Edwards, maybe the G.O.A.T. It is a club with a glorious history, one that is now sadly just a distant romantic memory.
Cardiff RFC no longer exist as a top-level club. With the introduction of regions as part of the effort to drag Welsh rugby into the professional era, the 'Cardiff Blues' region was created. This team is basically the old Cardiff RFC team with the same players, but rebranded.
Since then the links with that famous rugby institution have been slowly eroded; the kit has moved away from the light blue, inspired by the Cambridge University kit worn by one of Cardiff's earliest players in 1876, (which was used as an alternative to, fittingly for this piece, an all-black kit, but one with a white skull and crossbones on it! They basically wanted to wear a pirate flag! How amazing would that have been?) to a connotation and controversy free dark blue, as a way to appease fans from areas outside of Cardiff. There have been calls to drop the 'Cardiff' prefix to the 'Blues' altogether, shoring it of as much of it's old identity as possible, transforming it from a local club which is part of the city's identity and history, into a sterile and easily transferable 'brand'.
The technical descendent of that great club, Cardiff RFC, who set the world-record for attendence at a club game, with 48,500 watching a derby match with Newport RFC in 1951, with that famous ground in the middle of the city, now play in a tinny grey shed on the featureless outskirts of town in front of crowds of only a few thousand.
And Jesus wept.
Many will argue that the changes to the Cardiff club were necessary, maybe not always desirable, but realistically necessary in the modern era. I guess my reply is, 'have we given up too much for the sake of modernism?'. There are some rugby institutions that have survived and even thrived with the transition, such as the Barbarians and The Lions, and I also believe New Zealand. At this world cup, where hundreds of millions of NZ$ will be made, I hope that the All Blacks can show us how tradition and modernism can combine to create something that is stronger than what has gone before.
So if Wales don't win the World Cup (hint; they probably won't), then I hope New Zealand do, because it will also be a win for the rugby romantics.
Normal banter about sheep-shaggers and boring, boring 5-yard-drive-5-yard-drive-5-yard-drive-win-a-penalty-Johnny-kicks-for-3-rinse-and-repeat England, will resume next week. Thank you.
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