Challenging The All Blacks Haka

The all blacks Haka is a war dance done by the New Zealand rugby team, its terrifying and magnificent at the same time, it derives back to the Maori's who did the Haka before going into battle.
The Haka is done as a sort of challenge to the opposing team and throughout the history of the game there has been times where the opposing team has accepted the challenge by challenging them in return.
For me the challenging of the Haka is an epic sporting moment but sadly the IRB disprove of it; the most recent  occurrence of the challenging of the Haka was in the rugby world cup final between France and New Zealand where France came forward in an arrow shape.

The IRB fined France 10000 dollars for getting closer than 10m to the Haka as its 'disrespectful' but the All blacks and I think the rest of the nation respectively disagree with them.

Other occasions of the Haka challenges:

Both Ireland's and France's challenges were incredible but by far my favourite challenge comes from Richard Cockerill in 1997, watch this its legendary-

What Is The Haka - Complete explanation.

The Haka is many things; it is a war dance; a form entertainment; a challenge, it can even be used for celebratory reasons.

To understand the mighty Haka we have to go to its roots, where it all started.

History.

The Haka being performed.

The Haka was first performed by Maori tribes ( tribes in new Zealand) as a war dance to frighten and discourage opponents before a battle, similar to the all blacks Haka now, except now its a lot more to do with tradition and presenting the challenge to the opposition.

Any way there was one more reason it was used, and it was the most important one of all, to call the god of war on behalf of them; quite a scary prospect in its self don't you think, imagine how angry he'd be if they got it wrong!

To say that the Haka was only used before battle is a misconception, as I said above it was used for different occasions such as greeting guests and celebrating a great achievement, it was part of their culture and was used by children, women and men alike.

What is the Haka now?

Nowadays most people know the Haka as the dance the all blacks do before a rugby match, it is a exciting and intimidating display which is used as a challenge to the opponents and also seems to get them very pumped up; personally I love to watch it but if I was the one it was directed to, I would be terrified!
The type of Haka that the All blacks traditionally use is the 'ka mate' which includes the slapping of legs and arms while chanting (which you can see below).
There are also other teams who have adopted the Haka as well from the all blacks who have personalised it.

                                                New Zealand Haka against France.