Maori All Blacks fighting for their space in congested calendar

The sound of the Maori All Blacks performing their haka in their hotel in the early hours of Wednesday morning was a timely reminder of how important this team is to the people who represent it

INTENSITY: New Zealand Maori players perform a Haka during the second rugby match between New Zealand's Maori All Blacks and Ireland at Sky Stadium in Wellington on July 12, 2022. Pic: Marty Melville/AFP

The sound of the Maori All Blacks performing their haka, Te Timitanga, in their hotel overlooking New Zealand’s capital in the early hours of Wednesday morning was a timely reminder of how important this team is to the people who represent it.

They may have been behind closed doors but the stamping of feet and the volume of their chanting echoing through the hotel corridors offered a vivid imagining of what it must have been like a few hours earlier for the Ireland players facing it before kick-off at Sky Stadium.