ANTICIPATION IS ALREADY building for the Ireland vs New Zealand rematch in the rugby in Dublin this Saturday.
But some have been lucky enough to get up close and personal with the visiting players.
Yesterday, the 6th class students at Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada in Lucan, Dublin were paid a visit by the All Blacks themselves.
And they had a special ‘Haka Gaelach’ prepared
Which started out with their own Gaeilge chants before transitioning into the Haka itself – and it was executed with military precision
They then read out a specially prepared poem and sang their own version of Ireland’s Call
Niall Leech was there to record it and post it to YouTube, where he wrote:
It contains a mixture of the Maori Haka – Ka Mate and a re-written version of Irelands Call, specially penned for this meeting of two cultures from distant lands. This beautifully written poem contains a subtle nod to Maori heroes, including Jonah Lomu and Apirana Ngata and Irish Legends from Cú Chulainn to Anthony Foley.
All the all Blacks players were there to watch it all go down
There’s even a video of them all practicing for the big day as well - and the performance made the Six One News on RTÉ.
Hopefully the players were a *little* bit intimidated by this Gaeilge Haka – but mostly, they were probably just impressed by the quality showing put on by the pupils of Gaelscoil Eiscir Riada.
Well played.
