{"id":282142,"date":"2025-11-13T16:52:15","date_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282142\/"},"modified":"2025-11-13T16:52:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T16:52:15","slug":"scott-robertson-tackles-rumours-of-an-england-haka-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/282142\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott Robertson tackles rumours of an England haka challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Scott Robertson insists New Zealand<\/a> would welcome a challenge to the haka from England<\/a> when the rivals clash at Allianz Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Twelve months ago England advanced to the halfway line to the delight of an 82,000 crowd at Twickenham before being edged 24-22, while in 2019 they lined up in a V formation before crushing the All Blacks<\/a> 19-7 in the World Cup semi-finals.<\/p>\n

Extra spice was given to last autumn\u2019s Hillary Shield showdown when prop Joe Marler<\/a>, who has now retired, stated the haka is \u201cridiculous\u201d and \u201cneeds binning\u201d, provoking a furious backlash in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

The build-up to the rematch has been less controversial but Robertson understands the sporting theatre provided by opponents responding to the Maori war dance.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe haka\u2019s setting a challenge and if someone does something different, respectfully, you welcome it,\u201d the All Blacks head coach said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

England <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

New Zealand <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are always rules of engagement around it, but they know what we\u2019re going to do. If you haven\u2019t planned or covered off what they\u2019re going to do, it can be unexpected, and that\u2019s part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

A pivotal moment in Saturday\u2019s collision will be the battle between the benches, with New Zealand including Samisoni Taukei\u2019aho, Wallace Sititi<\/a>, Anton Lienert-Brown<\/a> and Damian McKenzie<\/a> among their reinforcements.<\/p>\n

England have stacked their replacements with five British and Irish Lions<\/a> forwards, with the bomb squad proving decisive in toppling Australia<\/a> and Fiji<\/a> so far this autumn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe finishing of Test matches is critical and whoever you bring on needs to make an impact,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got good cohesion after a couple of Tests. A lot of the combinations have played together and we have a good, powerful bench to get us home.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand will be led by Scott Barrett<\/a> after the second row recovered from the wound needing 12 stitches sustained against Ireland<\/a> at the start of their end-of-year tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s remarkable once you saw Scott\u2019s cut, he\u2019s got good healing powers. We\u2019ve had to pull him back a bit in training. He\u2019s ready to go,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Scott Robertson insists New Zealand would welcome a challenge to the haka from England when the rivals clash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":282143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-282142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/282143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}