KEY POINTS:
A few days ago, Frank Keating, the veteran sports columnist of Britain's Guardian newspaper, let fly at the haka.
"The haka has become tiresomely irksome ... both rugby codes have been subjected this month to a tedious basinful of this now charmless eye-rolling, tongue-squirming dance ... there is not a jot of fun in the haka any more. It has become a danse macabre," and so on.
What then must Keating have made of pre-kickoff events at Suncorp Stadium and the Millennium Stadium within eight hours over the weekend?
Certainly the haka is not to everyone's taste, and that includes some New Zealanders. But it's an integral part of New Zealand culture, and if it's to be done it should be done well.
At Athens during the Olympics four years ago, a handful of New Zealand supporters started one in the stands as the Black Sticks women's hockey team emerged for the second half of a match.
The performers made a dog's breakfast of it, stopped halfway through and started laughing.
You'll see lots of haka at Commonwealth and Olympic Games nowadays.
You sometimes wonder if there are people in the wider New Zealand group who are there with "haka performer" high on their job description list.
Indeed, whenever a group of New Zealanders gather, especially with a couple of brown drinks on board and particularly overseas, there's an odds-on chance of a haka breakout.
Rugby-wise, things got serious around the time Wayne Shelford decided to put some meat into it on the 1989 All Blacks tour to Britain. That culminated in a dramatic eyeballing between Shelford and Irish skipper Willie Anderson at Lansdowne Road.
Now there are microphones positioned in front of the All Blacks to get the full impact. All Blacks, present and past, talk of the motivating force to be drawn from a well-performed haka.
You'll often hear All Blacks and Kiwis talk of players who don't stand up and face a haka as showing disrespect, the unspoken addendum being they're due an extra serious duffing when the game starts.
This is arrogant. Surely opponents of All Blacks, or Kiwis, or other New Zealand teams, in those vital moments before the whistle blows, must prepare in the way that best suits them for what lies ahead.
Anyway the Kangaroos and Wales did stand up.
As Adam Blair, Isaac Luke, Benji Marshall and co edged forward they got in the Kangaroo faces. Some like hairy winger David Williams smirked; others like hardman lock Paul Gallen sarcastically clapped.
Wales stood motionless. And waited. And waited. So did the All Blacks, expecting the Welsh to retreat.
"It's a standoff at the Cardiff Corral," crowed commentator Murray Mexted, resisting the temptation to call it a Mexican standoff.
The crowd were in uproar.There is considerable potential here. Promoters will have taken note.
Dinner could have been brought on to the ground for the players; spectators could have settled down with the newspaper, or nipped out to one of the nearby pubs for a pint or two; a Welsh choir could have offered a musical interlude, or Welsh world boxing champion Joe Calzaghe could be wheeled out to spar a few rounds at one end.
Welsh coach Warren Gatland, a canny former All Black, knew his countrymen would not retreat until the Welsh retreated, so he called their bluff.
It was a marvellous minute of theatre, which the haka has become.
Back to the Kiwis.
How to pick the decisive moment in an utterly compelling contest won by bravery, skill and refusal to bow to the overwhelming favourites.
Here's five:
59th min: Lance Hohaia holding up Israel Folau on the Kiwis' line at 18-16.
62nd min: Billy Slater's howler, tossing the ball infield for Marshall to grab the loose ball for 22-16.
70th min: The penalty try when Joel Monaghan took out Hohaia as he sped for the bouncing ball in the Kangaroos' in goal. 28-20.
73rd min: A personal favourite - Jeremy Smith's wonderful, gut-busting ankle tap on Johnathan Thurston as the Kangaroo fled deep into the Kiwis' half. A six-pointer then would have made it 28-26, and had Kiwis' nerves jangling.
77th min: Blair's decisive final try as the Kangaroo defence fell apart.
The All Blacks were expected to win - 55 years of Welsh gloom tells us that - but the Kiwis weren't.
And that's why when people look back on 2008 they will sit at the top table of New Zealand sporting accomplishment.
Leave the last word to Blair, no doubt speaking for his teammates.
Asked what he thought of the haka faceoff, he was succinct: "It was awesome. I love that shit."
Got that Frank?
