Paul Lewis: I just can't haka the throat-slitting

There has been so much twaddle talked about the All Blacks' Kapa O Pango haka, with its controversial throat-slitting gesture, that I hesitate to raise it again. But the rednecks and the Brit-beaters came out of the woodwork in such numbers after the NZRU decision to review it that some common sense is required.

There are two issues here - the appropriateness of the throat-cutting gesture and the cheapening of the haka. Let's deal straight away with the favourite claim of the rednecks - that the NZRU caved in to pressure from the British media who took against the new haka and that the All Blacks should perform it and to hell with the detractors.

Bunkum. The NZRU is looking at the whole matter again as part of its custodianship of the All Black brand. As well they might. There are still some dinosaurs out there who don't like to hear rugby talking about "brands" but the plain fact is that New Zealand rugby has one - called the All Blacks - and it is worth a lot of money and, perhaps more relevantly, muscle.

So anything which might negatively affect that brand has to be looked at - just as any business and major corporation would.

There is another plain fact: All Blacks making throat-slitting gestures at their opposition is, well, unsporting, isn't it? It made me uncomfortable when it was unveiled and it's made me uncomfortable ever since. We are better than that, surely.

The 'explanation' by the haka's creator, Derek Lardelli, that the gesture was meant to represent the cutting edge of sport and the knife-edge that all the players were on remains one of the most ludicrous rugby quotes of recent times, competing earnestly with Lions and Irish coach Eddie O'Sullivan's remarks last year that Ronan O'Gara, the Irish and Lions first-five, had given us all a "masterclass" in No 10 play. There are few better examples of underestimating the intelligence of your audience.

And before all the ethnic experts get into gear and accuse me of knowing nothing about maoritanga, let me short-circuit that one. Absolutely right. But then I don't need to know a great deal about maoritanga as this haka was developed for and by the players to take in more of the all-round ethnic influences in the All Blacks, wasn't it? So it is more to do with the team. And All Blacks making jugular vein gestures makes me uncomfortable.

So, please, no more cobblers about what this means to Maori and historic precedent and the fact that the 'Ka Mate, Ka Mate' haka contains other unpleasant references - we are talking about a commercially-inspired haka which was immediately drawn into an unattractive copyright row as soon as it was released.

Haka gestures have always been misunderstood. Try sitting among a crowd at Twickenham when the All Blacks get to the bit where they slap a palm against the elbow with that arm raised vertically and the fist clenched. There is nearly always innocent laughter amongst the Brits at this - as the gesture means something very different in the UK and you won't find it being discussed at the vicar's tea party either.

The throat-slitting gesture has a very specific meaning in European circles. It can be - and was - interepreted by some as an insult. The haka is supposed to be a challenge, not an insult. The throat-slitting risks blurring that boundary. Not to the players - enough of those who have faced Kapa O Pango made it clear they were not bothered by it; enjoyed it, even. But then sport isn't just about the players.

Get rid of the throat gesture. There are many other gestures, actions and challenges which can be employed and not taken so literally by the audience - who are, after all, part of the point of doing a haka.

I was with the All Blacks once when they visited a Hawke's Bay school. The entire school turned out to welcome them with a haka. The ground shook. Grown men blinked back tears and struggled with lumps in their throats. It was a challenge and an honour all in one, delivered by people who really meant it. Not a throat-slitting gesture in sight.

But there is a wider issue here. In days gone, the haka was only ever performed overseas. As someone who has travelled a lot with the All Blacks, plus gone to see them playing overseas as a paying spectator, the sight of the haka as performed by the team is deeply affecting - it is the strongest link with home, the most powerful link to maoritanga that we ignorant Pakeha have. It is a reminder of New Zealand's unique qualities.

At least it was, until the days when it was done ahead of every international and has now spread to events like the Commonwealth Games where it seemed, at times, that even the sight of a Tip-Top wrapper or an old Vegemite jar on the footpath might have been enough to spark a haka.

It's become cheapened by overuse and over-exploitation. I was one of those who thought it was a good idea to do the haka at all test matches. No longer - it was a mistake.

The All Blacks should only do the haka in overseas matches.

It takes something of what it means to be an All Black and a New Zealander - even in these more cynical times of professionalism, rotation and other necessary evils - to people in other lands.