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QUICK TAP: ALL BLACKS ON ‘HIGH ALERT’ IN LOOSE FORWARD BATTLE

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After All Blacks’ coach Steve Hansen’s defence of the haka on Sunday, flanker Sam Cane said: “The only article I’ve seen around it was on Kees Meeuws and we’ve been informed that unfortunately he was misquoted so that’s a shame.

“But from an All Blacks point of view we love doing the haka. We do a light run through at captain’s run and then we bust it out on Saturday and it’s like the final touches of we’re ready to go.

“We’re well aware of the strong history that it has and it’s part of who we are as All Blacks – it’s as strong and powerful as ever, in my opinion,” he said.

Fullback/wing Ben Smith didn’t believe the haka was overdone and said it was still a tradition to do it before each Test.

“It’s our tradition, it’s our history,” he said.

“That’s just the way we prepare for a Test match. I think it’s a massive privilege to be able to do the haka and it would be odd if we weren’t to do that before a game.”

Meanwhile, the Wallabies said they understood the role of the haka in Maori and New Zealand culture.

Halfback Will Genia said he didn’t believe the haka was over-commercialised.

“They don’t do it for commercial purpose. They do it because it is something that is important to them in terms of their culture.

“From our perspective, we have an incredible amount of respect for it,” he said.