New Zealand rugby officials are not about to pay for the privilege of having the All Blacks perform the haka.
New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) chief executive David Rutherford today dismissed suggestions the union will have to pay to have the All Blacks perform the pre-match challenge.
"We don't want the haka to be for sale and if it were we wouldn't be a willing buyer of it," Rutherford said.
Rutherford was responding to a Sunday News article that claimed Maori rugby administrators want $NZ1.5 million ($A1.21 million) from the NZRFU for using traditional imagery, including the All Blacks haka.
The report quoted Maori administrator Ron Peters, of Auckland, who is a board member of Whakapumautanga, the NZRFU's new Maori advisory board, which is to be launched on Friday.
"I don't think anyone thinks the haka is performed for commercial purposes. If it was ever reduced to that I'm reasonably sure we wouldn't want to perform it," Rutherford said. "If the haka is for sale what isn't? The haka is very special to New Zealand rugby and it has a very special place.
"It's a part of our game. We've never had to pay for the privilege. To do so would demean it for us."
Rutherford said he was surprised at the article because he had last been in contact with Peters last Thursday and Peters didn't raise the issue then.
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