Teams should be able to respond to this challenge as they see fit
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Gregor Paul argues that teams should be able to respond to the haka in whatever way they choose at next year's World Cup, writing in The New Zealand Herald.
"All teams facing the haka and other pre-match challenges next year will not be allowed to encroach closer than 10 metres. If they do, as the Wallaroos discovered at the recent Women's Worlds Cup, they will be fined. Absolute tosh. Teams should be free to receive the haka how they like.
"If they want to stand on halfway, or slowly advance, or turn their backs, or return to the changing rooms while it's going on, then let them. The haka is a welcome and established part of test rugby. Most players who have faced it say they loved it and in truth it often feels as if opponents get more out if it than the All Blacks. Long may it continue. But the world should not be forced into some kind of cultural servitude. To dictate how teams must behave affords the All Blacks reverential status, as if they are the only nation with any ingrained heritage or meaningful tradition.
"It also removes the prospect of unexpected drama. Who could forget the way the boggle-eyed Willie Anderson angrily advanced his Irish side into the All Blacks' faces in 1989? Anderson and Shelford ending up nose to nose - unforgettable; brilliant. England's Richard Cockerill did much the same in 1998, impeding Norm Hewitt to spark a rivalry that ended in those two scrapping in the back of a taxi later that night."
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