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All Blacks Haka: Why teams are no longer allowed to advance: Planet Rugby

All Blacks Haka: Why teams are no longer allowed to advance: Planet Rugby

Gone are the days of teams taking on the Haka All Blacks and meeting New Zealanders in cultural challenges, but why is this happening?

The terrifying image of Sebastien Chabal and his French teammates staring at Haka before the 2007 Rugby World Cup quarter-final will remain etched in the minds of many fans.

Meanwhile, many will remember Springboks enforcer Kobus Wiese challenging… All Black people before the 1995 Rugby World Cup and the same goes for England fans and Richard Cockerill looking for Norm Hewitt two years later.

For Irish fans, Willie Anderson will always be synonymous with the best reactions to Haka, while Tongans and Samoans in particular will remember the epic cultural challenges that took place in the 1990s and early 2000s.

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However, all of these examples are over a decade or two old and there is a reason for that. World rugby statute.

In 2021, a clip of Samoa and Tonga taking on cultural challenges ahead of their Rugby League World Cup clash went viral as both teams battled with players only a meter apart – if at all – but that’s not possible in rugby union.

This is because World Rugby does not allow this, limiting teams to their own halves when performing cultural challenges.

This is explained in the World Rugby Match Commissioner’s Program Guide, which clearly states that a team failing to complete the challenge may cross the halfway line while the opponent may not cross the 10m line.

“When only one team is performing a challenge, no player of the team doing the challenge may cross their own 10 m line, and no player of the team receiving the challenge may cross the center line,” the guide reads.

If teams fail to follow the rules, as was the case during the 2019 World Cup semi-final when Joe Marler and his England teammates crossed the halfway line, they could be fined by rugby’s governing body – England was fined £2,000 in this case.

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These rules apply not only to the Haka All Blacks, but also to Siva Tua from Samoa, Sipi Tau from Tonga and Cibi from Fiji.

As New Zealand writer Jamie Wall has pointed out, these regulations were introduced for a rather “bland” reason, so that broadcasters and photographers could get a better picture of the challenge.

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Many believe that cultural challenges should not be undertaken before matches because teams are forced to “play with it”, but this is not the case, as the guide adds: “The team receiving the challenge is under no obligation to meet the challenge.”

Before one of the Bledisloe Cup tests in 1996, Australia elected to continue warming up while the All Blacks performed the Haka. A decision that Wallabies captain John Eales said he regretted, while former winger David Campese did the same in 1991.

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In the event that two teams want to complete the challenge, which is the case when two teams from New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga face off, they must be at least 10 meters apart.

“When both teams are performing, one team must not cross the halfway mark and the other must not cross their own 10m line – therefore the teams are always at least ten meters apart,” reads the official World Rugby website.

Modern responses to cultural challenges

While regulations currently prevent teams from addressing cultural challenges, opposing teams have proposed alternative ways to respond.

England formed a V shape in 2019 but simply did it too close to the All Blacks, leading to a penalty. But in 2008, Wales just stared at Haka and didn’t want to be the first team to break eye contact and move after she finished.

In recent years, wallabies have taken on a boomerang shape, with Ireland paying tribute to the late Anthony Foley by forming a figure eight.

READ MORE: New Zealand responds to Joe Marler’s ‘low IQ’ over haka outburst as England star deletes social media account amid backlash