No special plans for Haka as Ireland just 'let it happen'

Acting Irish captain Dan Sheehan doesn't have a counter-move in mind.

New Zealand's Rieko Ioane and team-mates perform the haka ahead of the Autumn international match at Aviva Stadium, Dublin. Picture date: Friday November 8, 2024. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire. 

From the Wallabies’ boomerang to England’s V-shaped formation, plenty of opposing international teams have tried to come up with ways to counter the All Blacks’ haka in recent years.

But acting Irish captain Dan Sheehan isn’t one of them.

“I think we just sort of let it happen a little bit,” the 27-year-old rake said in response to whether they were planning any special response to New Zealand’s revered haka.

“There might be a conversation later on if we want to do anything but I'm not bothered doing the whole composed dance around it. I think we'll keep it simple tomorrow and just enjoy the occasion.

“I think it's always a special thing to be able to witness the haka, especially in Eden Park. I think we'll just get up for it and look forward to it.” 

Last year England replicated its 2019 V-shaped formation after initially lining up on their own 10 metre line.

Jamie George was the man behind the response, but it was the bashful Henry Pollock who looked to enjoy it the most as he licked his lips in excitement.

Whether it worked or not, England beat the All Blacks at home for the first time in 13 years as Scott Robertson’s men crumbled the deeper the Test went.

“It’s always a difficult thing when you don’t want to get too complicated,” George said following their stunning 33-19 win.

“The theory was that the oldest would be on one side, the youngest would be on the other. So I was on one side, Henry Pollock was on the other. We were quite reluctant to give it to Henry because we weren’t sure what he was going to get up to – with Maro in the middle of the V.

“You can [poke the bear] and we won’t necessarily always respond to it. But at the same time we felt like I put it to Maro and Steve [Borthwick]. And I had an idea and I thought: ‘Why not?’ I quite liked the idea so they got on board with it. Maro said as long as we don’t have to have too many rehearsals.

“We wanted to replicate 2019 because we hadn’t done it here at Allianz [Stadium] which is something that I thought was pretty cool. I felt like starting in a flat line and then heading into the V would be pretty cool.”

While some teams are looking for an extra one per center to get them across the line, Sheehan clearly doesn’t think Ireland need to manufacture something.

Dan Sheehan and Rónan Kelleher practice their lineout throwing during the Ireland Rugby captain's run at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Perhaps that’s because Ireland now regularly compete with the All Blacks despite losing their past three Tests to them.

After all, Lions and Ireland tight-head prop has six wins and a draw from the 13 Tests he’s played against the All Blacks.

Sheehan, too, has another couple of wins under his belt.

So does it mean anything?

“I suppose we can take confidence from it,” he said.

“Obviously we have a new group, and we've had a good week's prep.

“I think lads are confident in our plan that we have inside. We have a rare opportunity to play in Eden Park against the All Blacks. We'd be fools not to give it our all. That's the sort of chat we've been giving all week.

“I think lads are buzzed inside just to have the opportunity and put our best performance out there.” 

While Andy Farrell has spoken of wanting to down the All Blacks at their “Mecca”, the brilliant hooker said he wasn’t particularly caught up in the nation’s 32-year winning run at Eden Park.

“I suppose we're very performance driven,” he said. “We don't need a whole lot of motivating factors. We think that the Irish jersey does it for us and we're very proud to represent our people at home and the group that we have here.

“That's the sort of emotion we've gone after this week. That's probably similar to how we've done it in campaigns past. I think we've focused on making sure that we do the people proud back home and all the support we'll have.

“That's just the way we've shaped the week, shaped the last campaign, is to make sure that we're representing the people back home.”