Joe Marler slams ‘ridiculous’ All Blacks haka as England star calls for war dance to be ‘binned’
England prop Joe Marler and the All Blacks performing the haka in 2024.
England prop Joe Marler has lit the touchpaper ahead of this weekend’s clash against the All Blacks, controversially calling for the haka to be axed.
The loosehead wrote the message on Tuesday night on X, formerly Twitter, before he deleted his social media account.
Marler wrote: “The Haka needs binning. It’s ridiculous”, before adding: “It’s only any good when teams actually front it with some sort of reply. Like the league boys did last week.”
The 34-year-old was referring to the rugby league clash between England and Samoa in Wigan at the weekend which saw the hosts get into the faces of the Pacific Islanders during their war dance.
Union’s stance
In the 15-a-side code, World Rugby laws state that teams must stay within their own half while the All Blacks are performing the haka.
Ironically, the Red Rose were fined by the governing body back in 2019 after they lined up in a V shape during the Rugby World Cup semi-final, with Marler crossing the halfway line.
It was not meant to happen that way, according to the Harlequins prop, as he explained the incident on The Jonathan Ross Show five years ago.
“The issue was, Ben [Youngs] drew it up the night before … he got up and he did it on a flipchart and he marked it all out with Xs and Os,” Marler said.
“The issue I had with it is I look at that board and thought, “It’s not to scale” … I thought we were meant to be closer than what the picture said.
“[I went over the line] which I thought we were all going to do but then I looked back and they weren’t doing it but I thought, I’ve already committed now.”
As a result of Marler crossing halfway, the Rugby Football Union were ordered to pay £2,000 for breaching tournament rules “relating to cultural challenges.”
Why the All Blacks prayed before the Haka and wore armbands against the Springboks
Previous haka responses
Before World Rugby clamped down on the matter, there have been some iconic responses to the haka.
That includes back in 1997 when England prop Richard Cockerill stood up to Norm Hewitt, with the New Zealand player getting right into the face of his Red Rose opponent.
A decade later and France similarly got up close and personal in the 2007 World Cup quarter-final with the imposing Sebastien Chabal one of those to stare down the All Blacks side.
Those types of moments have not been repeated since World Rugby stepped in, a move which has been criticised.
Many believe that sides should not be limited in their response to the haka given that the whole idea is to lay down the challenge to the opposition before the game.
However, Marler’s criticism of the war dance on Tuesday may well be a step too far this time around and it could backfire on England this weekend.
The All Blacks probably don’t need any added motivation ahead of Saturday but the Red Rose prop has just provided it with his latest outburst.
Marler will let his team-mates deal with any potential New Zealand retribution, though, as the English loosehead has missed out on the 23 for the Twickenham clash.
