Haka do, do, do, and while the New Zealand haka is always a highlight of the Rugby World Cup we say let’s have Samoa sports war dances.
And not just because our friends from the Samoa Tourist Board have kept us up to speed on the back of the ANTOR tourist board awards this week.
Which modesty forbids me saying I was nominated in.
But because the world has been fixed on the other war dances at the RWC in France.
Rock and Samoa roll
The Samoan stomp is, of course, no haka, it’s a Manu Siva Tau.
But then if you’re a Dwayne Johnson fan you’ll know that already from his films.
When The Rock performed a war dance in Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the set of which you’ll see at Warner Bros in LA.
No, this is the Manu Siva Tau which rugby fans will remember was first showcased at the 1991 World Cup.
To replace the Ma’ulu’ulu Moa, which was a slower dance and said to be less intimidating than the Samoan call to arms.
Now these war dances naturally come across more impressively in their own language.
But they all have familiar themes… ‘Ready for the war’ and ‘make way and move aside.’
Beautiful Samoa
Now as a way of introduction to the South Seas the rugby teams and their war dances are a distinctive calling card.
The Beautiful Samoa website does the rest panning across the islands for you with a range of enticing sale deals.
Their flights and accommodation packages run out on October 2 so if you’ve been holding off on your long haul…
Then chew over the sample Coconuts Beach Club Resort and Spa from five nights $2,599pp.
Coconuts Beach boasts panoramic views out over a turquoise lagoon.
And there are activities galore on offer such as village and island tours.
And scuba diving, surfing, snorkelling and kayaking and beaches of course.
The deal includes return flights flying Air New Zealand from Auckland to Apia.
While we can tease you with a five-nighter from Auckland in a tree-house suite.
From $2959 per adult share twin, extra night from $349 each. To travel on November 8.
Fiji and me
Now we don’t always have to head out to the South Seas although we most certainly would.
And we got a taste first hand when the Fijians came out to Dublin a couple of years back.
And they got Dancing Dad up to embarrass himself.
Now it wasn’t a Cibi, the war cry they have been demonstrating since way back in 1939, but my moves were frightening enough.
For those of you who want to impress your friends when they begin the Cibi there’s a lot in there about uplfiting trees.
Do, do, do the Tonga
A lot more imposing than the Med party dance, the Conga, this Tonga war dance is the most recent of all.
But it comes by royal assent, penned by King Tama Tu’i Taufa’ahau Tupou IV in 1994.
To commemorate a successful tour of New Zealand that year.
The Tongans are big into their Sea Eagles (who knew?) and famished unfurl they warn ‘the foreigner and sojourner beware’.
Haka can
Of course no summation of the war dances you’ve been seeing at the RWC would be complete without the Haka.
And none of us knew then back in the day when we went to our first Scotland v New Zealand game at Murrayfield what it meant.
Although it didn’t put off the bould Timmy from running onto the pitch to do it with the mighty All Blacks and get ejected.
The ‘Ka Mate’ dates back even before the game to the 1820s.
When it was performed by the rangatira, or chief, and now by a muscley rugby player.
The story goes that Tama-nui-te-ra, the sun god, and Mrs Sun God Hine-Raumati who embodies summer had a son, or sun, called Tane-rore.
And he would dance for his mum and caused the air to quiver, the movement that is said to form the haka.
We assume he is the ‘hairy man’ of the Ka Mate who ‘summons the sun and makes it shine.’
Now with the Samoans drawing their latest World Cup adventure to a close against England we’ll enjoy the Manu Suva Tau for the last time.
Until of course the next time so we can say let’s have Samoa sports war dances.