Decoding the Haka: Ireland’s Bold Move, Wales’ Iconic Standoff, and England’s Recent Challenge to New Zealand’s Tradition

England’s latest star, Henry Pollock, and the national team have earned praise for their impressive response to New Zealand’s iconic Haka last weekend, a prelude to their victory over the All Blacks at Twickenham.

Under the guidance of Steve Borthwick, the team had carefully considered their approach to the traditional challenge that precedes matches, ultimately deciding on a unique show of solidarity.

In a strategic move, England’s players formed a horseshoe or V-shaped formation to confront the legendary war dance, with Jamie George playing a pivotal role in orchestrating their unified stance.

Sir Clive Woodward, a columnist for Daily Mail Sport and the mastermind behind England’s 2003 World Cup triumph, hailed their response as a piece of ‘brilliant rugby theatre.’

Proving their resolve, England rallied from a 12-0 deficit to clinch a 33-19 victory. This marked their first win against the All Blacks at home since 2012 and their first anywhere since 2019.

With Wales the next to face up to the Haka and New Zealand on Saturday, Daily Mail Sport takes a look at some of the best responses – and some controversial incidents – to the pre-match ritual.

Pollock licks his lips – 2025 

Starting with the most recent, England’s response to New Zealand last week at Twickenham with Pollock’s actions in particular generating headlines.

Pollock divided fans by pulling a defiant face and licking his lips, with the 20-year-old also seen smirking at the All Blacks.

Hooker Jamie George explained England’s thought process post-match, while admitting there was some reluctance over Pollock’s positioning in their horseshoe formation.

‘The theory was the oldest would be on one side and the youngest would be on the other. So, I was on one side and Henry was on the other,’ said hooker George.

‘We were quite reluctant to give it to Henry because we weren’t sure what he was going to get up to with Maro (Itoje) in the middle of the V. We wanted to replicate 2019.

‘I felt like starting in a flat line and then heading into the V would be pretty cool. A response like that is great but then backing it up with the performance we did was the most important thing.’

While some fans praised Pollock for rising to the occasion, others had claimed his response had been ‘arrogant’.

Former New Zealand scrum half Justin Marshall this week praised England’s response, but instead took aim at fans singing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot as they attempted to drown out the noise from the Haka.

‘I just don’t feel that it’s respectful and I feel that it actually negated England’s response to the haka, which I thought was awesome,’ Marshall said earlier this week.

‘The way that they formed the shape that they did, they advanced forward. They actually respected and responded to the Haka in their manner, but the reverberations of ‘Swing Low’ being sung around the stadium, you couldn’t hear the Haka.

‘I felt that England’s response was basically affected by the crowd.

Ireland break the tradition

‘I always said that we won the dance but lost the match,’ former Ireland captain Willie Anderson said when reflecting on his team’s famous response in 1989.

Weeks after Munster players linked arms when facing the Haka, Ireland’s national team took it further at Lansdowne Road.

Led by Anderson, the Ireland team linked arms and edged their way towards the All Blacks during the ritual.

Anderson would ultimately end up face to face with New Zealand captain Buck Shelford, who was widely credited with revitalising the use of the Haka before matches. 

‘In fairness it was Jimmy Davidson’s idea and I suppose he got a few idiotic lieutenants to carry it out,’ Anderson later told the Irish Times. ‘The atmosphere was, if you could have bottled it, you would have made a fortune.’

Anderson explained part of the motivation was to get the crowd behind the team, rather than have them cheering on New Zealand’s Haka.

‘We were really inspired, and played way above ourselves,’ Anderson told the BBC. ‘Okay they won well in the end, but I still feel it was worth it’.

 New Zealand ultimately eased to a 23-6 victory with Ireland and Anderson facing criticism for their actions, only to be defend by Shelford.

‘The Haka is a challenge, and they accepted it. It was as simple as that,’ said Shelford. I certainly did not mind. I suppose it did rile our boys. They played well that day.’

Chabal’s ‘scary response’

World Rugby has dubbed Sebastien Chabal’s response to the Haka as ‘The Scariest Haka Response Ever!’ on the governing body’s own YouTube channel.

The French team had opted to line up on the halfway line to face the challenge ahead of their quarter-final at the 2007 Rugby World Cup in Cardiff.

New Zealand players approached the French team – who had worn red, white and blue shirts to form a Tricolore – with little separating the two teams when the Haka ended.

As players went face-to-face Chabal, who was nicknamed ‘The Caveman’ during his career, took it upon himself to stare down one member of the New Zealand team.

‘It was our playmakers and the captain who had met the day before or two days before, but they hadn’t told us anything about it. They didn’t want it to disrupt our preparation,’ Chabal admitted.

‘The vast majority of us found out about it five minutes before going onto the pitch. We were getting our jerseys thrown at us, in any case, we no longer had time to think.

‘You stand there like that and we’ll face the haka to show them that even if they’re the favorites, they’ll have to go through us to win.

On his memorable stare down, Chabal added: ‘We had not prepared to react to the haka in that way but just before going out on to the pitch they told us to act like it was a war, to show them that we were ready for a good fight.’

France would go on to earn a 20-18 victory.

France produced another memorable response by linking arms and walking towards the All Blacks at Eden Park before the 2011 World Cup final.

World Rugby has since introduced rules that both teams must remain inside their own halves during the Haka. 

Gatland’s history lesson leads to stand off 

When Warren Gatland was preparing to lead Wales against his home nation New Zealand in 2008, he called a team meeting to discuss their response to the haka.

According to Wales captain Ryan Jones, Gatland questioned the squad on their knowledge of the history of the Haka, which led to the squad devising their response.

‘We had pretty limited knowledge, although we understood it was a challenge,’ Jones told Wales Online. ‘But Warren asked if anyone knew the significance.

‘He also asked us whether we realised the haka was only over when the opposition walked away and that was the All Blacks’ cue to leave.

‘I think it was Martyn Williams who asked what would happen if nobody turned away. There was a sort of shrug of the shoulders. We thought this had never been done before.

‘There was a unanimous call to adopt this policy and that was pretty much it.’

The All Blacks would ultimately perform the Haka as usual prior to the match at the Millennium Stadium, with the Welsh team observing it respectfully until its apparent conclusion.

What followed was the Welsh team remaining still and facing down the All Blacks, with both teams refusing to budge for over a minute.

‘The referee today is Jonathan Kaplan and his first job today is to just calm things down after the haka,’ commentator Eddie Butler said on the BBC.

‘I don’t know whether you can sense it, but the crowd are all part of this. I think this is a challenge accepted.’

Co-commentator Brian Moore added: ‘Isn’t that fantastic, a statement made by Wales and good luck to them, but now they have to back it up with action.’

Piri Weepu, who led the Haka, admitted New Zealand had been caught by surprise by Wales response.’

‘We stood there waiting for them to walk off and they did the same,’ Weepu later reflected. We ended up having a Mexican stand-off. We weren’t going to give an inch and neither were the Welsh.’

New Zealand would ultimately earn a 29-9 victory, with Wales suffering a 26th loss since their last win over the All Blacks in 1953. 

England fined for response before World Cup semi

England broke World Rugby rules with their response ahead of their World Cup semi-final in 2019 after crossing the halfway line.

England contravened those regulations, and instead advanced towards the All Blacks in a V formation. 

Six players – Joe Marler, Billy Vunipola, Mark Wilson, Elliot Daly, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Ben Youngs – appeared to stand in the All Blacks half. 

Marler was the closest to the Kiwis as he stared down the Haka, while Owen Farrell was caught on camera smirking at the New Zealand haka ahead of the semi-final.

Referee Nigel Owens told England to move back and they were later hit with a £2,000 fine for breaching tournament rules ‘relating to cultural challenges’, although they did win the game 19-7.

And there were no Kiwi complaints. In fact, the then head coach, Steve Hansen, said afterwards: ‘The Haka is a challenge and it requires a response. I thought it was brilliant.’

Marler caused controversy last year when he labelled the Haka as ‘ridiculous’ and called for it to be ‘binned’. 

This infuriated the public and several politicians in New Zealand, with Marler’s ‘lack of appreciation for tradition’ slammed, while another figure accused him of having a low IQ.

Marler subsequently deleted his X account, before soon resurfacing on the platform – and he then later rowed back on his comments and expressed regret.

‘Hey rugby fans,’ he posted on X at the time. Just wanted to jump on here and say sorry to any New Zealand fans I upset with my poorly articulated tweet earlier in the week.

‘I meant no malice in asking for it (the haka) to be binned, just want to see the restrictions lifted to allow for a response without sanction. My flippant attempt at sparking a debate around it was s***house and I should have done better at explaining things.

‘I’m grateful for the education received on how important the Haka is to the New Zealand culture and hope others have a better understanding too.’

Campese ignores the Haka before downing All Blacks

Australia legend David Campese produced one of the most famous responses when he opted to ignore the Haka entirely.

While his team-mates lined up on the halfway line ahead of the 1991 World Cup semi-final in Dublin, Campese was warming up and practicing his kicking.

‘I’m often asked why I warmed up on my own while New Zealand performed the haka before the semi,’ Campese later reflected.

‘I wasn’t disrespecting it, I actually believe in the haka, I think it’s fantastic and I’ve come up against it 29 times.

‘But ahead of the game the coach said that whatever we did was up to us. I was quite happy to go and kick the ball, that was how I did it, and it worked.’

Campese would go on to produce one of the standout performances of his career in a match-winning display.

He scored a stunning try in the sixth minute of the semi-final, before claiming a kick forward, twisting past two All Black stars and producing a pass over his right shoulder for Tim Horan to run in their second.

Australia earned a 16-6 win over their rivals and went on to beat England 12-6 in the final.

Cockerill confronts the Haka

‘What the **** have you done?’ England captain Martin Johnson told Richard Cockerill after the Haka in 1997.

The hooker, who was making his first start for England, advanced forward as New Zealand began the Haka.

Cockerill would ultimately end up face to face with his opposite number Norm Hewitt, with the pair squaring up to each other on the Old Trafford pitch.

‘Firstly, Clive [Woodward] said to find your opposite number and stand opposite him; what I didn’t understand was that he meant from about 20 metres away. I took him at his word,’ Cockerill told the Telegraph in 2022.

‘I’m not sure I was the most skilful of players, but I was very competitive and very tenacious and was always generally up for the battle.

‘It was just my way of doing it in an England shirt. It wasn’t really for effect, at the time, it’s what I meant.

‘I don’t regret it. It’s a challenge that was laid down, it’s part of the game.’

England were beaten 25-8 by the All Blacks. 

Cockerill has since offered his opinion to England players on their response having been forwards coach under Eddie Jones between 2021 to 2023.