"The Haka...better than cheerleaders!" Topic

Best Haka I've seen is the teaching of the Haka from the Kiwi movie 'Once Were Warriors' – damn gritty movie. Love the Kiwis – great bunch of guys.

We used to play a version of rugby when I was a kid called 'Smear the Alternate Lifestyle Guy' or tackle the guy with the ball and we didn't wear any protective gear either and I suffered a broken collar bone and several broken fingers because of the game and still kept playing [even played it in college]. I doubt that too many boys play the game nowadays because it would be considered brutal, sexist and downrigh unfair, ah the wonderful PC-infused times we live in!

FredBloggs – not sure who you are talking about but Brian Close gets my vote – everyone has a story about him and for once I think they are all true. As a young boy I saw him fielding at very short leg at Old Trafford. The batsman smashed the ball at him. Close kept his eye on it and tried to take the catch but the ball was just too quick. It cannoned off his unprotected head and raced away into the outfield. He never flinched, never rubbed his head and carried on as if nothing whatever had happened. Scary.

Thats the one Gwydion. :) he was scary

You do realize, you lot, that doing war chants before a battle is just to get the adrenalin roaring so's the fear is submersed and you can actually fight without wetting yourself? So the Haka is the decendant of peaceful islanders girding up their loins to do some killin': hopefully, YOUR chant will unman the other side's chanters before the swinging even starts. War chants are evidence of fear, not the lack of it….

Doug,

I wouldn't go so far to say that war chants are 'evidence of fear', though I'm sure fear is a factor. You are right though, they are intended to get the adrenalin pumping and also act as a group bonding ritual because these things have to be practiced, finally, the leader of the chant was supposed to be the fiercest warrior among the group, so there is a hierarchy of sorts to the chant.

That's just it, though: I wouldn't want anyone getting anywhere near my tender, precious body. It's hard to visualize the guy in the tree with the blowgun, or behind a tree with a bow and arrow, engaging in a Haka before battle….

The English have a saying: "Football (Soccer) is a game for gentleman played by hooligans. Rugby (Union) is a game for hooligans played by gentleman."

"Rugby League is a simple game played by simple people. Rugby Union is a complex game played by w@nkers"
Former Australian Captain Laurie Daley

Best haka I've ever seen:

YouTube link

(Don't switch off after the "commercial" bit – the funniest part is at the end.)

@Gwydion/Freddbloggs,

Our school coach usedd to say that the cricket season was epitomised by the sound of leather on Brian Close.

He was interviewed by local TV after the incident you related, in which he admitted the ball had only glanced off his head. The reporter asked what would have happened had it struck him between the eyes:

"Ee'd 'ave bin caught at silly mid off."

There was also a famous newspaper photo of him after facing a barrage of bouncers from Wes Hall and Charlie Griffiths in a Lord's test. His right side was blacker than they were, and someone pointed out at the time that if he'd been a right-hander, that many blows over the heart would probably have killed him.

"Wow, a bunch of white guys doing a traditional Samoan war ritual..we have that here in the US too, white kids thinking they are hard core gangsta rappers…Ha Ha Ha"

Yes we call them "WIGGERS"

Rugby Union a white collar sport?! Why did nobody tell us that in Wales?! ;o)

All right you lot, "Chill" a bit:

YouTube link

May your resolution be "stirred" and your morale, not "shaken".

cheers,
Robert
18thcenturysojourn.blogspot.com