Rugby football, via television, have brought an aggressive form of South Pacific dancing, not the beautiful girls in hula skirts with leis around their necks to welcome American sailors in search of rest and recreation, as Technicolor movies told the world was how dancing was done in the islands. The four Pacific Island groups at the Rugby World Cup will show off their dances to the world, the best moments of prematch drama. The 2011 World Cup will start with two before New Zealand play Tonga, each with his own dance, Tonga going first.

It is a moment of gripping drama as the All Blacks perform their haka, now stylised and theatrical  with the camera focussed on popping eyes, puffing cheeks and protruding tongues.

When island sides meet, as when the All Blacks of New Zealand played the Ikale Tahi of Tonga, Pacific Island group against Pacific Island group, they do their dances, sometimes at the same time but at the opening of the World Cup Tonga first and then New Zealand.

The people of the South Pacific – Polynesians, Melanesians and Micronesians - have been there for thousands of years, drifting down from the Malay Archipelago in search of lebensraum from about 1 500 BC onwards till they reached their southern extremity, New Zealand, somewhere around 950 AD.

This was an area off many islands. (Polynesia is a Greek word meaning just that – many islands.) Naturally it became an area of many languages as the various groups, in their segregation, learnt to speak in different ways. (The word for sky in Fijian, Tongan and Samoan is the same – langi. In Maori it is rangi.)

Being humankind these people fought, producing for a short period of their lives the practice of cannibalism, eating what the islanders euphemistically called long pigs, ceremonially rather than as a regular supplement to their diet of yams, fish and ordinary pigs. Being fighting people they developed war dances.

There are many, many forms of war dances. The haka performed by the All Blacks, for example, is only one form of war dance generically called the haka – and people still design their hakas.

The first New Zealand rugby team to abroad went to New South Wales in 1884 and they did a haka. Then in 1988 that astonishing team went all over the world on a tour of 107 matches. They were called the New Zealand Native team. New Zealand was not long a colony by then and four of the natives were Pakehas, white men born in New Zealand. They also performed a haka which started with the words Ake ake kia kaha.

Then came the Originals, the first official team to head for Europe, the first team to be called the All Blacks and the first team to use the Kamate haka before a Test. They did so when they played Scotland and again when they played Wales. Led by their team the Welsh crowd responded by singing Land of My Fathers, the beginning of anthems before Test matches.

The 1905 All Black haka was not nearly as stylised and theatrical as it has become since television started zooming in on the players.

The Fijians perform the cibi, the Samoans the siva tau and the Tongans the sipi tau.

Haka is a generic term. In other words there are lots of war dances called a haka in New Zealand.  They are Maori in origin.

The All Blacks may not sing the Maori version of their national anthem above an isolated mutter, but they certainly can perform their team’s haka with enthusiasm.

The haka starts off with a growl by the leader and then the team jerk into aggressive posturing and chant.

The words of the All Black haka

The first bit of the haka is lead by a single All Black who calls out

Ringa pakia
Uma tiraha
Turi whatia
Hope whai ake
Waewae takahia kia kino

English Translation

Slap the hands against the thighs
Puff out the chest
Bend the knees
Let the hip follow
Stamp the feet as hard as you can.

Then comes the team bit the Kamate haka in which they do what the leader had suggested and more

Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!
Tenei te tangata puhuru huru
Nana nei i tiki mai
Whakawhiti te ra
A upa ... ne! ka upa ... ne!
A upane kaupane whiti te ra!
Hi!

English translation

I die! I die! I live! I live!
I die! I die! I live! I live!
This is the hairy man
Who fetched the Sun
And caused it to shine again
One upward step! Another upward step!
An upward step, another.. the Sun shines!!
Hi!

There was a change on 27 August 2006 at the House of Pain, Carisbrook in Dunedin, when the All Blacks came up with a new haka, the controversial Kapa o pango haka with its throat-slitting action which some felt was over the top. This haka was written by Ngati Porou's Derek Lardelli. It has not often been used.

Kapa o pango kia whakawhenua au i ahau!
Hi aue, hi!
Ko Aotearoa e ngunguru nei!
Au, au, aue ha!
Ko Kapa o Pango e ngunguru nei!
Au, au, aue ha!nt!
I ahaha!
Ka tu te ihiihi
Ka tu te wanawana
Ki runga ki te rangi e tu iho nei,
tu iho nei, hi!
Ponga ra!
Kapa o Pango, aue hi!
Ponga ra!
Kapa o Pango, aue hi, ha!

English translation

Let me become one with the land
This is our land that rumbles
And it's my time! It's my moment!
This defines us as the All Blacks
It's my time! It's my moment!
Our dominance
Our supremacy will triumph
And will be placed on high
Silver fern!
All Blacks!
Silver fern!
All Blacks!

Tonga, whose team’s nickname is the Ikale Tahi, the Sea Eagle, has the sipi tau. Their finger-pointing war dance looks the most naturally bellicose of the lot.

The sipi tau

‘Ei e! Ei e!
Teu lea pea tala ki mamani katoa
Ko e ‘ikale taki kuo halofia
Ke ‘ilo ‘e he sola moe taka
Koe ‘aho ni teu tamate tangata
‘A e haafe mo e tautua’a
Kuo hu’i hoku anga tangata
He! He! ‘Ei e. Tu
Teu peluki e molo moe foueti taka
Pea ngungu mo ha loto fita’a
Keu mate ai he ko hoku loto
Ko Tonga pe mate ki he moto
Ko Tonga pe mate ki he moto  
‘Ei e! Ei e!

English translation

I shall speak to the whole world
The sea eagle is starved
Let the foreigner and sojourner beware
Today, destroyer of souls I am, everywhere
To the half back and the backs
I have shed my human characteristics
Maul and loose forwards I shall mow
And crunch any fierce hearts you know
I drink the ocean and consume the fire
To death or victory my will is fine
That’s how Tonga gives to her motto
To her motto, Tonga gives all
To her motto, Tonga gives all
Hi! Hi!
  
The Fijian rugby team has been using the cibi (pronounced thimbi) since 1939, though a dance antedating that. When the Bauan warriors returned from a victorious campaign they would dance the cibi while women praised them with songs and obscene gestures. This became the war cry cibi ni I valu.

The rugby team started using it in 1939, the year of the Fijians’ first tour to New Zealand. The captain, Ratu Sir George Cakobau, was later Fiji’s paramount chief as the Vunivalu and also became the Fiji’s governor general.  He asked Ratu Bola of the Navusaradave in Bau, for a cibi. Bola obliged and taught the team the war dance which they still use.
 
The cibi

Ai tei vovo, tei vovo
E ya, e ya, e ya, e ya;
Tei vovo, tei vovo
E ya e ya, e ya, e ya

Rai tu mai , rai tu mai
Oi au a viriviri kemu bai
Rai tu mai, rai ti mai
Oi au a viriviri kemu bai

Toa yalewa, toa yalewa,
Veico, veico, veico.
Au tabu moce koi au
Au moce ga ki domo ni biau.

E luvu koto ki ra nomu waqa
O kaya beka au sa luvu sara
Nomu bai e wawa mere
Au tokia ga ka tasere

English translation

Make ready, make ready,
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh;
Make ready, make ready
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh;

Look hither, look hither,
I build a breastwork for you,
Look hither, look hither,
I build a breastwork for you.

A cock and a hen,
They attack, attack, attack
It is tabu for me to slumber
Except to the sound of breakers.

Your ship is sunk below,
Don't think I'm drowned too.
Your defence is just waiting
To crumble when I prick it.

The Samoans have their chant proclaiming their bellicose manliness – the siva tau. They composed it for the 1991 rugby World Cup, replacing the “gentler Ma'ulu'ulu Moa on tour.  It introduced the world to the word Manu – the Warrior.

Le Manu Samoa e, ia manú le fai o le faiva
Le Manu Samoa e, ia manú le fai o le faiva
Le Manu Samoa lenei ua ou sau
Leai se isi Manu o le atulaulau
Ua ou sau nei ma le mea atoa
Ma lo'u malosi ua atoatoa
Ia e faatafa ma e sósó ese
Leaga o lenei Manu e uiga ese
Le Manu Samoa! Le Manu Samoa!
Le Manu Samoa e o mai i Samoa!
Hi!

English translation

The Manu Samoa, may you succeed in your mission.
The Manu Samoa, here I come.
There is no other Manu anywhere.
Here I come completely prepared.
My strength is at its peak.
Make way and move aside
Because this Manu is unique.
The Manu Samoa,
The Manu Samoa,
The Manu Samoa reigns from Samoa.