Kiwis captain Ruben Wiki leads a traditional haka. Photograph: Cameron Spencer/Getty.
I've never really been one for opening ceremonies. Fireworks - ooh - I can stomach, rippling flags held aloft by small children - aah - can do their thing while I stick the kettle on. But any costumed shenanigans involving thousands of performing arts students who genuinely believe that waving their arms around like that represents a nation's resilience and spirit - nah. A whole season's worth of Gilbert & Sullivan simmering away in a fondue pot in Keith Chegwin's house couldn't be cheesier. Or much less palatable, for that matter.
So I can't decide whether to be intrigued or horrified to hear that groups of local children will be on the pitch at various intervals during Euro 2005, performing a Euro Haka. It won't be as pec-slappingly scary as the All Blacks', at any rate.
