All Black 'Haka' Boy

The more I researched the HAKA, the more I realised how emotional and spiritual is is to the nation of New Zealand.
Don't you just love small nations.

The first New Zealand rugby team to tour overseas, playing eight matches in New South Wales, Australia, in 1884, performed "a Maori war cry" or haka before each of its matches.

During 1888-89, the New Zealand Native team toured the Home Nations of the United Kingdom, the first team from a colony to do so. It was originally intended that only Māori players would be selected, but four "whites" were finally included. As the "whites" were born in New Zealand, the name "Native" was considered justified. The team performed a haka before the start of their first match on 3 October 1888 against Surrey. They were described as using the words "Ake ake kia kaha" which suggests that the haka was not "Ka Mate". It was intended that before each match they would perform the haka dressed in traditional Māori costume but the costumes were soon discarded.

New Zealand played its first full international test match when it played Australia in Sydney in 1903. It has been claimed that the New Zealand team performed a haka which was evidently composed for the occasion, as it addressed the Wallabies".

In 1905 New Zealand made their first tour of Britain. This was the first time the team were referred to as the All Blacks and this particular team also became known as the "Originals"'. It is uncertain whether they performed a haka before every match, but they at least performed "Ka Mate" before their first test, against Scotland, and before the match against Wales. The Welsh crowd, led by the Welsh team, responded by singing the Welsh national anthem.

When a New Zealand Army team played Wales in 1916, the words of "Ka Mate" were included in the printed programme, indicating that the haka was established as an accompaniment to New Zealand rugby teams playing overseas.

The 1924-25 New Zealand rugby team which toured the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Canada and which was nicknamed the Invincibles, performed a haka that was written for them during the voyage to England by two supporters, Judge Frank Acheson of the Native Land Court and Wiremu Rangi of Gisborne. The haka was led by star player George Nepia. It was performed before all but two of the tour matches. Reporters criticized the team for disappointing the crowd on the two occasions it was not performed.

A pre-match haka was not always performed on All Blacks tours. The team that toured Britain in 1935-36 did not perform one before matches, although they did some impromptu performances at social functions. In the early decades, haka were only rarely performed at home matches, such as the third test of the 1921 Springboks tour, played in Wellington.