Rugby-related musings

[snorkackcatcher]

A couple more random thoughts, while watching Scotland try to not get utterly stuffed by the All Blacks ...

(1) Does the official who approved the team shirts in use really need a guide dog and white stick? We have the Scots in very dark blue shirts with large greyish-blue areas, and the 'All Blacks' in grey shirts with large black areas. In other words, they're next to impossible to distinguish from each other without careful inspection, and I pity the poor sod who's refereeing this (that's a statement you don't often hear), who has to make decisions about which team's players are where in rucks and mauls that are just a mass of dark and light patches.

(2) I sometimes wonder why teams don't organise a counter to the All Blacks opening attempts at psychological warfare ... er, the Haka ... using elements of their own culture. Wouldn't it have been nice to see the Scots reply to it with a good old Glaswegian "Oh aye?" *spit* "Well, fook ye too, Jimmy ..." *obscene gesture*

Also, it's confirmed that England will definitely face Australia in the quarter-final if they can get past the might of ... er, Tonga. Who have, admittedly, played out of their skins in this tournament. It says something about how far English rugby have fallen in the last four years, and the poor to abysmal performances thus far, that I'm not totally confident about even the group game, let alone the Aussies. Bleh.

Comments

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I think the Scottish should try a counter. There really does need to be public debate on the matter. The South Africans or the Australians tried something a while ago during the Haka to counter it and if I recall correctly, there was a huge outrage in NZ and they had to stop it after one match for being culturally insensitive. Basically, New Zealand’s monopolised the right to display culture and any use of any other in counter of our culture is of offence to ours and must be ended immediately, which is completely and utterly unfair, but I’m a New Zealander and it’s nice being special so it’s not as if we’re going to complain ;)

And a European team might actually make some headway. I know quite a few Australians have made the argument that Waltzing Matilda is of cultural significance to them and lobbied to have that allowed at the World Cup, but that argument always reeks of racism - white Aussies ignoring their nation’s aboriginal culture again. European nations don't so much have those acute colonisation issues.

Anyway, there have been a few attempts to stop the Haka in other sports, and I think in the last Commonwealth Games it was banned. So the spectators did it from the stands instead. I’d say it’s about as important culturally to New Zealanders as the flag waving is to Americans, and it’s not going to go away.

[snorkackcatcher]

The weird thing about the 'cultural insensitivity' argument is that it's not actually NZ culture in the first place -- it's Maori culture that's been appropriated by a largely white team (well, maybe not so much as formerly these days). Western Samoa do have their own version, and I think Tonga do too?

Apparently Italy turned their backs on the Haka before the pool match this time. Mind you, that was probably a tactical error as it riled the All Black team so much they ran in about 40 points in the first 20 minutes. :)

[meddow.livejournal.com]

Well it’s not just the All Blacks that have appropriated the Haka, the largely white nation also has appropriated it, making it national culture. The vast majority of non-Maori guys I know have a school Haka they know off by heart and can perform (and which can be used to get discounts at stores when travelling overseas – a friend of mine performed his school Haka very loudly in the middle of a 6 story mall Malaysia once to get us 10% off ice cream). Though you’re also right, offence is an offence to Maori culture. When someone catches the Spice Girls on camera performing a Haka, it’s the Maori leaders which come before the news camera denouncing women for performing a Haka as an offence to Maori.

Really, the question of what New Zealand culture in general is one big mess, since it’s an amalgam of so many immigrant communities, dominated by middle class English culture, with an increasing emphasis since the 1970s on the nation’s Maori heritage, and even more recently, it’s position in the Pacific Islands, but it’s not quite amalgamated just yet.

And poor Italy. Really the only thing a team can do when facing the All Blacks is to hope it’s a semi. They always choke in the semi-finals. Everybody I know is just sitting back and waiting for it to happen :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Well it’s not just the All Blacks that have appropriated the Haka, the largely white nation also has appropriated it, making it national culture. The vast majority of non-Maori guys I know have a school Haka they know off by heart and can perform

Wow, I didn't know that. It's one of those things that you don't know whether you should consider a good or a bad thing.

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

How I miss 2003 England. *sigh* I noticed that about the Scotland and Kiwi shirts too - I had trouble telling which team had the ball at any time and rucks and mauls were a dead loss! It must be awful for poor Scotland though in that New Zealand really didn't play very well and they still got trounced. My dad and I generally watch rugby games together (he used to play so I was raised on it - I once profoundly shocked a team of boys at a quiz at school by being a girl but still knowing both the rules of rugby and the names of the then Five Nations stadiums!) and he summarised the game as Scotland get the ball, Scotland try and go forward, Scotland try and go forward, Scotland try and go forward, New Zealand get the ball, New Zealand score.

Now I just have to live in dread of Tonga. What has English rugby come to?

[snorkackcatcher]

It's depressing, isn't it? Even worse than English football, which at least revived a bit against Israel and Russia -- although perhaps not quite as bad as English cricket (one-day, at any rate). I'm surprised at Tonga -- they used to put up a good show but then be heavily beaten, but here they've played above their usual form. The population is only about 100K!

And that was a very good description of the Scotland-NZ match. :)