By Eugene Bingham, 60 Minutes Producer
Now we all know that British rugby columnist Stephen Jones says what he does just to provoke. And it sure seems easy to prickle us about the All Blacks.
But when he writes that the haka is "a self-important bore and instrument of the worst kind of sporting arrogance", does he really mean it? Is that what all Britons think?
Well, in a week when Jones has stirred outrage again, it’s interesting to hear the views of another Brit who’s been closer to the All Blacks than Jones could ever dream of.
Nick Danziger, one of the world's best photojournalists, spent a month alongside the team for his book, “Mana”, and featured on our 60 Minutes story "Black Book".
He was privy to the All Blacks' most private moments, even allowed to be there as they practiced the haka, a ceremony considered sacrosanct.
"The haka is terrifying when you see it," says Danziger. "I mean they're bringing the spirits, the ancestors up from the soil, the sea. So I think it's threatening to those that they face, but it's challenging themselves as well. There is no question of a doubt, whether it’s a school game or the full All Blacks team, it’s a pretty extraordinary thing to be facing and when you’ve got the crowd behind you, I think that is a daunting task to be surmounted."
Danziger told Mike McRoberts about the time in a hotel meeting room when he watched the team practicing Kapa o Pango, the haka the team wrote itself.
The tension I would say is almost greater because everyone is being viewed to make sure that they are performing it correctly. The strength has to be there and so you have one of the players - I won't name which one - but actually criticising some of the players, explaining that, 'you shouldn’t be soft in this position' and explaining the significance of each of the movements. It's quite an extraordinary moment, you feel the ground shake. You're in a room with 25 larger-than-life men being put through their paces – an extraordinary, extraordinary experience…"
That sounds like a Brit who understands what the haka is all about. No wonder. As you’ll have seen in our story, Danziger and writer James Kerr were cheek-by-jowl with the team throughout the June home test series.
The book was Kerr's idea, conceived about 20 years ago when he embarked on a similar project with the Kangaroos, the Australian rugby league team.
He told McRoberts getting access to the All Blacks was a little bit like breaking into the SAS. But he says it was made easier because of Danziger's impressive resume as a war photographer and photojournalist extraordinaire.
There’s a joke that I’ve been making that [for Danziger] it was Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, New Plymouth.
I think bringing Nick on board helped a lot because obviously he's been inside the White House and 10 Downing St and worked, for instance, with the George Bush’s of this world."
Kerr says he was struck by the differences between what he encountered with the All Blacks verses the Kangaroos 20 years ago.
It was the fundamental decency of everybody within the environment. There haven't been any dickheads, if you like. I mean it was very different during the Kangaroo book, I’m not going to name names, but it was very different.
There was a lot of attitude… whereas the general idea of a family and extended family of a true team, and if you're working with them, which we have been, we’ve been embraced very, very quickly.
"There's an incredible work ethic, they tidy up after themselves in the bus and the locker room. There’s a humility and a humble approach. It’s very easy to be a cynic, I think, but there are innate qualities of being a New Zealander. It comes down to the idea of whanau, that collective thing is an innate part of being a Kiwi and I think that’s embodied in the All Blacks.”
Kerr, who grew up in New Zealand but now lives in London, admits that his views sound like an advertisement for the All Blacks. But he insists it’s the truth. He thinks we have lost sight of the aura of the black jersey.
To find it again, he thinks we should look no further than Sonny Bill Williams.
"Money doesn't bring you memories and it doesn't bring you that sense of personal satisfaction that perhaps lifting a World Cup in an All Black jersey would give you.
"Certainly the Sonny Bill story is proof-positive that the All Black jersey hasn't lost that aura. It still brings people back. And long may that last."
www.themanaproject.com