KEY POINTS:
The England rugby team are staying mum on how they will respond to the haka when they meet the All Blacks at Twickenham tomorrow morning.
Doug Howlett and Rua Tipoki pre-empted the All Blacks with Ka Mate before their Munster side lost 18-16, and the Welsh reacted with
a brooding minute's silence last week before getting thumped 29-9.
But those expecting former NZ Maori player-cum-English centre Riki Flutey to lead a haka back at his countrymen will be disappointed.
"I reckon that might be just a little inappropriate," said the former Hurricanes utility back, who led New Zealand age-group teams in the haka, to the Independent.
His beleaguered coach Martin Johnson also had a laugh when asked what England might do. His mind was on the game and as the paper reported, "if he doesn't get that right, there will be a real song and dance".
Haka-gate continued this week in the UK with commentator and former England hooker Brian Moore suggesting the newer Kapa o Pango haka was not traditional and therefore was not part of the game and "should not be accepted".
All Black midfielder Ma'a Nonu has warned against a repeat of last week's antics in Wales, saying the Welsh had wound him and his team-mates up.
"If you're going to stand there like that then in the past people would have charged, but it's a rugby match and you can't do that. 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."
Minister of Maori Affairs and haka expert Pita Sharples agreed that charging the opposition or any other physical contact was "out of the question".
But he applauded the silent treatment the Welsh dished out last weekend saying it was "a tangata whenua response": "We really respect that...it was a very Maori thing to do.
"The Welsh basically said 'this is our turf, you do your haka, but we won't move until you've retired, this is our land' - it was an excellent response."
Dr Sharples, founder of leading kapa haka group Te Ropu Manutaki, said correct responses according to Tikanga Maori included oratorical acknowledgement or a haka in return.
But when the haka was taken into other contexts there was "no right way" to respond and it was "arrogant" to expect otherwise.
"When you take it into the public arena you cannot expect the same response from tauiwi [foreigners] or any other nation and therefore you should not be surprised by any reaction that they may have to it," he said.
"They're entitled to do what they like and I think all sporting teams ... if they're going to do haka then they're not to be so precious about it to expect people to stand to attention."
HOW NEW ZEALAND'S RIVALS HAVE HANDLED THE CHALLENGE
All Blacks v Australia
Wellington 1996
Under orders from coach Greg Smith, Australia dropped their traditional approach of standing 5m away and eyeballing their transtasman rivals and hooker Phil Kearns stifled his propensity to wink at his haka-enraged opponents.
The Wallabies simply moved to the other end of the field and began practising for the match.
They needn't have bothered. Score: NZ 43 Australia 6.
Wallabies captain John Eales later said that he received angry mail from New Zealanders asking why the Wallabies hadn't stood and faced the haka.
Norm Hewitt v Richard Cockerill
Manchester 1997 and Dunedin 1998
From a distance you could have been mistaken in thinking the two bouncer-types wanted to hongi.
Problem was one was foot-stomping, waving his arms about and grimacing and both looked like they wanted to kill each other when Richard Cockerill got right up into Norm Hewitt's face.
"They were throwing down a challenge and I showed them I was ready to accept it," Cockerill later told reporters.
Not content with their on-field face-off, the pair took it to the next level with a bout of fisticuffs in town after the Dunedin match.
The scrap featured alongside Ali and Frazier and ice queens Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan as one of The 10 most bitter sporting feuds of all time, according to English paper, the Observer.
Kiwis v Kangaroos
Auckland, 2006
Enormous Kangaroo second rower Willie Mason was clearly seen mouthing the words "aw foff Webb" to Australian-born but Maori-looking Kiwis fullback Brent Webb who was understandably coming to grips with the words, actions and everything else in Ka Mate.
Auckland-born Mason, who in an interview on The Footy Show blamed carpenters for the NRL's salary problems, would later be knocked out by a vicious shoulder charge from Kiwis second rower David Kidwell for the cultural slight.
"I think Willie understands that it's pretty important to keep his mouth shut," recently disgraced Australian coach Ricky Stuart later said in an interview.
