What a Dagg: Israel's hand gesture mystery solved

Here's Dagg after scoring (right) and former wrestling star Santino Marella. Photo / Supplied, Greg Bowker

The secret is out about Hawke's Bay and All Black rugby player Israel Dagg's quirky try celebrations.

Dagg has been feeding clues to the media, almost on a daily basis, about his curious hand gesture after scoring his second try in the All Blacks' win against France in Auckland last month.

The gesture attracted more media interest than his Man of the Match performance.

Social media were quick to attribute the hand-puppet sign to the Crazy Horse Gang in the movie 'Boy', who had a similar : "gang sign''.

The gesture is definitely "gang-related'' to a certain extent. Dagg is a member of the "Quackers Anonymous'' group and that's where the gesture comes from.

The group also includes fellow All Black Zac Guildford, their Magpies teammates Richard Buckman and Hika Elliot, and Dagg's Napier Pirate Rugby and Sports clubmates Conrad Rieter, Marcus Donovan, Kelsey Miller, Dane and Jarrod McCarthy.

When Dagg released his second clue - "the laughing bear drives the motorcycle'' last week he was referring to Rieter who rides a motorcycle.

"I'm the CEO and Marcus is the vice-president. We just get together, talk about daily business and a quacker is our symbol,'' explained Rieter.

"We're like the Knights Templar or Opus Dei,'' he added.