Rugby: And the band went on

By WYNNE GRAY

The choir struggled to keep up while the match officials battled with the pace of the All Blacks' latest Tri-Nations test against the Springboks.

Everyone had to be patient at Christchurch on Saturday as the national anthems and haka used up almost six minutes before Andrew Mehrtens kicked off.

The only fortune was the fine weather.

There were dual anthems for Africa, as is the way these days, then anthems for New Zealand, New Zealand and then New Zealand.

After the twin anthems for Africa and the Maori anthem, the panel operator for the pre-recorded music pushed the wrong button and the Maori version was repeated before God Defend New Zealand could be played.

After the music marathon ended, the haka had to be performed before the game could get under way.

"We had to apologise for that musical glitch, but I don't think many of the players noticed it because they were concentrating so hard," Canterbury chief executive Steve Tew said.

"Something more might have been said had the All Blacks lost."

Referee Chris White and his touch judges appeared to want to have the test played in slow motion.

They all struggled to keep up for large sections of the match.

At one stage a tiring White, an Englishman obviously used to a more measured approach, asked for some respite.

"Slow it down boys," he urged.

White's luck was that he did not have to referee last week's shootout in Sydney.