All Blacks talk the haka in London

All Blacks talk the haka in London

For rugby fans outside of New Zealand, the haka is a major draw card to watch All Blacks games.

So today some of the players were out in London trying to educate people about what it means to the team.

Some admitted the haka is one of the more nerve-wracking parts of their job.

All Black legend Sean Fitzpatrick recalls the days when they weren't though. One that sticks in Fitzy's mind is Andrew Mehrten's debut in 1995.

"I sort of looked around. Josh Kronfeld was making his debut also; he was there and I looked around and couldn't see Andrew Mehrtens anywhere and thought, 'Oh bugger where is he?' Went out, went into the shower block and there was Mehrts going through the actions of the haka," says Fitzpatrick.

"The white boys get a bit nervous. They're not as co-ordinated as our brown brothers," says Liam Messam.

Luke Romano revealed Messam has been known to give extra tuition in his hotel room.

"When I first came into the team, the first time we did Kapo O Pango I thought, 'Oops, I need a bit of help here.'

"Obviously some are better at the haka than others and some can pukana and some can't. I probably fall into the can't category there. I see Kieran Read doing the pukana all the time and he's as white as me, so I hit him up for a few tips and he says he doesn't know he's doing it; it just happens."

A new virtual experience iPhone app lets fans experience the haka on the field, but it's not that easy to convert the locals.

In all fairness, most of the people who turned out today were all Kiwis living in London, so they all knew about the haka. But there are very few chances for them to get close to the All Blacks.

Some may dream of taking the field to perform the haka themselves one day.

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