Rugby: Haka tames feisty hooker

By Wynne Gray

At the World Cup

Richard Cockerill, the abrasive England hooker who eyeballed the All Black haka two years ago, says he will be equally as confrontational this weekend but not during New Zealand's traditional pre-match challenge.

The feisty former antiques restorer has polished his lines and attitudes since that Old Trafford day and does not want to dilute his performance in this defining test with the All Blacks by any sideshow stunts during the haka.

"I will just stand there and accept it along with everyone else," Cockerill said.

He remains unrepentant about his belligerence towards Norm Hewitt, his rival who led the haka two years ago, and is surprised his old foe and scuffling partner in a taxi dispute in Dunedin last year is not with the tourists this time.

He expected the All Blacks to complete their haka on their 10m line and he will stare but not advance from his side of halfway.

"I believe I did the right thing. They laid down a challenge and I can remember when (Wayne) Shelford came over here a few years ago and one of the Welsh or Irish sides went and huddled in their own 22 and he went down to the 22 to do the haka to them. So what do they want, they can't have it both ways can they?"

He had not seen the new version haka the All Blacks used before the Tonga game but heard it had increased its aggressive content.

If Cockerill makes the England lineup, delayed by coach Clive Woodward until tomorrow, he will not step forward until referee Peter Marshall whistles the start.

It is an attitude he has taken on since playing Ireland in Five Nations tests and realising it was not wise to wind up his rival hooker there, Keith Wood.

"I think you have got to give respect where respect is due and New Zealand deserve a lot of respect.

"People have asked me a lot about Anton Oliver - he has come on immensely the last 18 months and he is one of their better players now.

"People say their pack is not as strong as it was in the old days but I don't believe that. They have a whole new generation of players and they are as strong as they always were."

Cockerill claimed there was nothing premeditated in some of his antics.

"It just happens. I am just there to play and the stuff which happened at Old Trafford was spur-of-the-moment.

"I am just a happy-go-lucky sort of person who wears his heart on his sleeve and that is part and parcel of it; I make no apologies for it.

"I just do what I do," he said. "I have done it since I was a kid and I am what I am, simple as that, and it will be great to go up against the best side in the world again."

The 29-year-old accepted he had been concerned later about what he may have unleashed by confronting the haka but he had demonstrated his strong nationalism and accepted the challenge in his own way that afternoon.

The decision of the RWC to relent and allow England to use the Swing Low Sweet Chariot rally as well as the national anthem would be beneficial as a counter to the haka.

He did not liken his game to that of a former British bulldog hooker, Brian Moore, but thought if he could engender the determination and spirit his predecessor had wrung from his pack then he would be achieving a fair deal.

If Cockerill plays at the weekend it will be the fifth time he has faced the All Blacks in two years and that helped to reduce some of the aura and mystique which teams used to feel about playing the men in black.

"If you play teams often enough you become accustomed to their style and our game has been helped dramatically by playing a lot of Southern Hemisphere sides in the last three seasons."

And the input of former Waikato captain and now England forward coach John Mitchell had been a very significant factor in raising the standards of skill and endeavour of the home pack.

"He does not hold back if you are not putting it in but if you work hard he has a lot of respect for you. If you don't do the job he soon lets you know."