Amazing Video: Haka Versus War Dance

When it comes to pregame festivities, no region of the world can compete with the rugby games played across Oceania. With their internationally renowned Haka dances, Australia and its neighbors terrify the world. But in October, the Aussies and New Zealanders raised the bar by bringing an Aboriginal war dance to the field of play.

The amazing video below opens with a traditional haka: An enormous fellow in a loin cloth and thong blows into a conch shell. He then begins walking around his team, the New Zealand Maori, waving a stick menacingly and leading the team in a terrifying synchronized strut. Terrifying to your average NFL fan, but nothing new to the initiated.

Then, at 2:25 into the video, the Indigenous Dreamtime team's aboriginal war dancers step on screen, showing off a dance that hasn't been executed on the Australian field of play in decades. Painted in brown and white stripes, they jab in the direction of the New Zealand team with spears and boomerangs.  Unfazed, the New Zealanders then advance on Dreamtime with a bizarre, synchronized robot strut.




Hat tip to Deadspin.

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