Joe Marler wasn't wrong to take a pop at the All Blacks' haka

Sport needs more Joe Marlers.

Folk with a sense of humour, good points to make and the thick skin to wear the criticism that inevitably comes their way.

I applaud Marler, the accomplished England prop, for his latest pop at the All Blacks haka.

I get that the haka is culturally – and commercially – important to the All Blacks and New Zealand Rugby, but I’ve never felt everyone else had to treat it reverentially.

It was something the All Blacks used to do on tour, but not at home. A largely token exercise it was too, until Wayne Shelford invested more mana into the whole thing.

Those of us of a certain vintage remember the coming together of Shelford and Ireland’s Willie Anderson in 1989 as one of the great moments in the history of the haka.

Teams are kept apart in rugby now and I can see why.

One of the more memorable pre-match challenges I ever saw was between the New Zealand Maori and Cook Islands rugby league teams, in Hawke’s Bay about 20 years ago.

I say memorable because that ended in a brawl, after the two teams got a little too close for comfort.

As surprising and exciting as that was, it’s not the sort of thing you want to see at Twickenham every time the All Blacks come to town.

I’ve always felt New Zealand’s national sevens teams get the haka right. They perform it if and when they win a title, in large part because the tight schedule of tournaments doesn’t allow for it to happen before every match.

I’d quite like to see it become an aftermatch ritual for the All Blacks as well, not least because for all the good haka I’ve seen in recent seasons, they’ve often been the prelude to defeat.

The Kiwis rugby league team, for instance, produced a spine tingling haka ahead of Sunday’s test against Australia. Only problem was, the 80 minutes that followed weren’t marked by quite the same levels of ferocity and cohesion.

Some of Australia’s players smirked afterwards, which no doubt upset a few sensitive folk, and that’s partly the issue Marler is driving at.

Just because the haka matters to us, doesn’t mean it has to matter to everyone else. Teams shouldn’t have to undergo cultural sensitivity training around how to receive the haka, just because New Zealand teams insist upon doing it.

I remember a time in the 1990s when Wallabies loose forward Sam Scott-Young blew kisses at the All Blacks during the haka.

It’s probably not something I would do, but I’d defend Scott-Young’s right to do it.

Marler’s bound to have offended people with his tweet about the haka and it’ll become a topic of pre match post-match chat in London as journalists, starved for actually interesting topics, resort to driving a wedge between the teams on the basis that the haka is some sort of sacred cow.

I was never much of a rugby player, but I played 1st XV footy and took great pride in performing the school haka ahead of our matches. The thing is, though, the opposition did theirs too.

A challenge was laid down, then another accepted in response.

That’s our rugby culture, but it’s not Marler’s or England’s and I’m not sure we’re in a position to demand that he likes, or even respects, our desire to do it.