Munster considered doing Haka as Gaeilge

ONE of Munster’s heroes from an unforgettable night at Thomond Park has revealed the Heineken Cup champions considered performing a Haka in Irish.

Reds stalwart Frankie Sheahan was at the centre of a passionate Munster display but suffered the heartbreak of defeat after Joe Rokocoko ran in a match-clinching try three minutes from time

Amongst the more unforgettable memories from an epic night which the All Blacks won 18-16 was the sight of Munster’s four resident Kiwis throwing down the challenge to their visitors and performing the ‘Ka Mate’ Haka.

Thomond erupted as Rua Tipoki led Dougie Howlett, Jeremy Manning and Lifeimi Mafi through the Maori war dance – but Munster’s hooker revealed that various ideas had been discussed in the months leading up the game, including the possibility of performing an Irish version of the Haka.

“I spoke to Rua (Tipoki) about this three or four months ago and it was kind of bandied around what you could do,” said Sheahan.

“There was talk at one stage of doing some sort of Haka in Irish and there was talk of everybody doing it at one stage. There was talk of us joining in for a small bit at the end, there were a lot of things thrown around.”

Tipoki contacted Maori elders in New Zealand before deciding to perform the Haka opposite his fellow countrymen.

“In the last week or two, Rua contacted his elders, the old Maoris, back in New Zealand and had a chat with them. He had to find out whether this would be acceptable or not to do it. And a lot of the elders said ‘Yeah, this would be no problem.’ They said actually this would be a good thing. Dougie Howlett then got in touch with the New Zealand camp and basically put it to them that they were thinking of doing this and they (New Zealand) were quite happy with it. And it was decided that the four boys would just go for it!”

According to Maori traditions, you can riposte a Haka if you have a Kiwi in the ranks, but the same Maori traditions also dictate that the four Munster players would perform their Haka first.

“There was a reason for that. It was because it was our home patch and they were laying down the gauntlet to the boys. Anyone I’ve talked to has said that there was just an absolutely incredible noise when they did it.”

Sheahan also said it was important that the players did not get distracted by the hype around the fixture.

“All that was going through my mind was ‘focus, focus, focus’ and not get carried away with the whole occasion. We kept reminding ourselves when it got into the huddle that there’s a lot of stuff going on, that we had to keep it tight and communicate between ourselves. I just think the guys carried themselves really well.”

The Munster hooker said one of the reasons behind their inspirational performance was that the team were fully aware of who they were representing when they arrived in Thomond before one of the biggest matches of their careers. Reminders of players’ past and present helped them to play the match of the lives.

“Being part of Munster is something special. When you put on that jersey, you’re representing guys like Gaillimh (Mick Galwey), Claw (Peter Clohessy), Donal Lenihan, Noel Murphy, Pa Whelan, Moss Keane and Paul O’Connell — all these guys. Coming into the game I was looking for some angle how do we beat these guys? We needed to get in amongst them, annoy them and break their patterns. We slowed their ball down, the crowd got into it and the younger guys really well. I think that’s what we did and that’s what got us where we got to. We were ahead with three minutes to go, but looking back on it I think we were very unlucky. But we gave it our best shot on the night.”