Rugby World Cup: You Should Be Dancing, Yea

Come si fa a dire… “awesome?”

 You know, I hate promises. And, HATE is a word I throw around quite carelessly, so I pretty much almost kind of mean what I said.

Here’s what I wrote last Friday, in my “article” or my “column” (my blog) about the five highest ranked teams for the Rugby World Cup, going on right now in New Zealand (come on, you all know that… there was even an article about Canada’s win over Tonga on The Province’s front sports page today, only two days late).

Anyway, this is what I wrote:

“More to come with the other 11 teams in the 2011 Rugby World Cup.”

Okay, so I haven’t gotten around to Part II (I WILL — I have a month). I mean, here I am, making fun of The Province for their delayed coverage and I don’t even have coverage. As my girlfriend would say, “That’s karma” (she doesn’t understand what karma means).

Nevertheless, dancing has become a major source of attention for the game of rugby in the last couple years. Not dancing, I guess, but tribal ceremonies… pump-up performances… WAR CALLS.
But, really, “war… what is it good for?” That’s what some people have been saying, calling the All Blacks’ famous Haka “unfair”. They say it’s a cheap, illegal way of intimidating the competition.

You mean rugby, right? The sport where nobody comes in below 220 pounds? (Except on Team Japan, of course.) I think if there was worry about a team being intimidated, they would not be playing rugby.

After all, isn’t this just a brilliant strategy on the part of New Zealand? Hasn’t it always been a way for them to announce to their opposition, “We’re coming for you”? Hasn’t it always been a way for them to detract away from their awful performance on the field?

Remember when Viktor Krum was bewitched in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire?

 Anyway… here are some stories, videos, and whatever of countries and their dances… Enjoy.

• Victoria News: “Warrior’s game: Canada greeted by war dances at Rugby World Cup” (September 15, 2011) — We have to plug our own content, and this is a good story from Thursday morning by Vic News reporter Travis Paterson.

• NEW ZEALAND ALL BLACKS — some of “the best Hakas” below, according to uploaders on YouTube… it’s basically comparable to finding “World’s Best Cup of Coffee” in New York City…

• TONGA — after New Zealand’s Haka became really popular and got overblown by English people and Morgan Freeman, Tonga decided it was a good idea to use theirs – the Sipi Tau…

They lost this one, I’m sure…

• SAMOA — pronounced “Sam-Wah”… this is perhaps the most intense of all three…

• FIJI — Fiji gets all their best players stolen by New Zealand, so it’s only fitting that they would have one to combat the Haka, called the Cibi… if you’ll notice in the first one, the All Blacks’ Haka gets Fiji fired up…

To each his own..

• ITALY — believe it or not, the Italians are big fans of war dances and tribal ceremonies, and their pride should show heavily at this year’s World Cup… here’s a preview…