Hurricanes decline chance to perform haka

The Hurricanes will not perform a haka ahead of Tuesday’s clash with the British and Irish Lions in Wellington.

The Super Rugby champions will instead make some sort of presentation to the touring side.

The Blues, Crusaders and Chiefs have all unfurled a haka during the Lions’ series, while the Highlanders opted to present a sword. The pre-match challenges have featured squad members in leadership, or prominent, roles who weren’t actually in the playing 23 and that won’t be repeated when the Lions come to Westpac Stadium.

The Hurricanes have always indicated that a haka was not in their pre-match plans and chief executive Avan Lee confirmed that yesterday.

‘‘We were given the opportunity to do a haka months ago. I raised that with management and senior players and we talked that through a couple of times and decided that we weren’t going to do a haka,’’ Lee said.

‘‘Partly because we don’t have a haka and we would’ve had to learn one and go through the cultural process around that. That’s not to say we won’t do a haka in the future.

‘‘But we were very clear we wanted to give the Lions a gift to mark the occasion and to welcome them to Wellington and the region.’’

This is not some kind of political or cultural statement from the Hurricanes. They support the decision of other franchises to perform a haka and, as Lee said, might develop their own in time.

It’s just that, on this occasion, they’ve chosen different means with which to mark the Lions’ visit to the region.

‘‘We want them to feel welcome and our challenge will be to try and play well and beat them. We didn’t feel that we needed to do a haka just because others were, we had our own strategy and plan and part of that is to respect the opposition and welcome them to the region, have a hard game of rugby and then enjoy each other’s company afterwards,’’ Lee said.