The Telegraph - A good kicking

If the Welsh Rugby Union thought that preventing the New Zealand players from performing their haka at Saturday’s international would put the visitors off their game, it was deluded. The final score of 45-10 in the visitors’ favour was no surprise, and the indignity of having to conduct their pre-match ritual in their dressing room, far from demoralising them, is likely to have made the All Blacks more determined than ever to trounce their petty-minded hosts.

It is not easy to score an own-goal in Rugby Union, but the WRU seems to have managed it. For not only were Welsh spectators obliged to see their team ground into the mud, albeit predictably, but they were not even allowed to witness the Kiwis’ traditional warm-up, which for rugby fans is part of the fun of watching this perennially outstanding side take to the turf. Let’s hope the Welsh have learnt their lesson.

They wouldn’t let them do the haka?