The Haka stand-off!

I was amazed and shocked yesterday! Wow! The All Blacks took on Wales yesterday in a game the All Blacks won 27 – 9 but the highlight for me was before the game even kicked off! The All Blacks lined up and gave u a sterling Kapa o Pango. I always get goosebumps from Kapa o Pango! But then after the All Blacks had done Kapa o Pango, the Welsh team stood their ground and refused to walk away like every other team that has faced the Haka in all these years has done.

The Wales team just stood their without moving thinking that the All Blacks were going to back away after they had done the Haka, but the All Bloacks to did not budge. I could not believe it! I am sure the All Blacks players did not know what was going on but credit to them for standing their ground. It was like two WWE stars staring at each other before the bell rings! Obviously the Wales team knew before the game that they were going to stand their own ground.

Credit must go to the ref, Jonathan Kaplan who just went up to the two teams and told them that he is just going to start the game and they should back off from each other! A lesser experienced ref, may have been absorbed into the moment and not have know what to do.

That stand off just seemed to set the tempo for the game as Wales came out charged up but I was not phased for one bit as I knew that at the end of the day the All Blacks would prevail and prevail they did winning 27 – 9.

I just hope that this Wales stand-off to the Haka does not encourage other teams to do the same. It could become rather silly if everyone stands still and does not budge after the Haka. We have been enjoying the Haka for so many years without this nonsense.

Now I am reading what the Wales captain, Ryan Jones had to say about that stand-off: “It was something we came up with during the week. What we were trying to show was that it was our stadium, our pitch, our fans and we weren’t prepared to give up the ground. I think we showed that and we took that into the opening encounters of the game,” he said.

Fair enough Ryan, just a pitty that your stance only helped you for the first few minutes and then after that the All Blacks showed you that even in our own stadium, on your own pitch and infront of your own fans, the All Blacks are the boss!

Watch the Boks stand-off against the Haka in next years Tri-Nations! Word of warning to the Boks, do not try stand-off or else you will just make those All Blacks angrier and instead of loosing by 25 it will be 50!