John Williamson’s ‘Waltzing Matilda’ is back. Great!
Columnist By Spiro Zavos, 28 Jun 2007 Spiro Zavos is a Roar Expert
During the Rod Macqueen era when the Wallabies won every trophy it was possible to win, a feature of the pre-test foreplay was John Williamson singing ‘Waltzing Matilda’.
The anthem started as the Wallabies took off their track suits before lining up for the kick-off. There was the weathered Williamson, with his gold Wallaby scarf draped around his neck, singing out Australia’s unofficial anthem. And the crowds around Australia would join in with a resonant and patriotic fervour.
Rod Macqueen, ever the master of strategy, wanted some sort of counter to the All Blacks haka. After the haka the All Blacks took the field all fired up. But their opponents had been standing around for some minutes.
Macqueen decided to put his players in track suits. After the haka the Wallabies were told to take off their track suits as slowly as possible. Now it was the All Blacks turn to wait around. And to compound the pressure on the All Blacks, John Williamson, a great Wallaby supporter, was asked to sing ‘Waltzing Matilda.’ After his stirring rendition, backed up by a full-throated crowd, the emotional charge had shifted to the Wallabies from the All Blacks.
For reasons unknown Williamson’s wonderful turn was dropped from Wallaby games in Australia. Is it a coincidence that the Wallabies started to lose home tests that were won in the Macqueen era?
On Saturday night, though, at Melbourne, John Williamson is back. The minstrel of the Wallabies will be there in his gold scarf after the haka to lead the huge crowd in song, in the battler’s anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda.’
John you’ve been sorely missed …
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June 28th 2007 @ 4:03pm
Michael said | June 28th 2007 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
Joe,
No I’m an Aussie.
As you say, I think the SA PLAYERS gave a perfect response. They acknowledged the challenge with passsion and resolution. It was the chanting of the crowd that was disrespectefull, ast they tired to drown out the Haka. That just plays into the Kiwis hands. best to watch, it accept it, and get on with iot. Not make it a battle before the game.
To asnwer Spiro. Singing ‘Maltzing Watilda’ is not disrectfull to the Haka or Kiwis (rather it is a crap song, by a dud singer and could be argued is disrectful to Aussies as noted by someone else) and it is an attempt to CREATE a traditon. Some traditiona evolve and some are created, but this one died and we should move on to finding something else (if that is decided there is a need to sing anything after the Haka)
Enjoy
Michael Fahey
June 28th 2007 @ 5:54pm
Craig said | June 28th 2007 @ 5:54pm | Report comment
Michael,
So what do you want? 50,000 revved up South African fans to sit there quietly while the All Blacks do the haka? I speak for all South Africans I know when I say I LOVE the haka. I think it is perhaps the single greatest unique characteristic of any sport. The haka may be performed by other sides for NZ, but it is only in rugby that it is filled with the passion that it is. As a young school boy playing rugby in South Africa you are raised with the idea in mind that one day you may have the honour of facing the haka, and it is an absolute honour to face it.
When the All Blacks performed the new haka for the first time against the Boks in Dunedin 2 years ago, it was AWESOME!! We all loved yet, yet the Aussies and English came out complaining about the throat slitting incident. The Springboks however took it as what the Kiwi’s intended it to be; a sign of respect to the Springboks to welcome back the greatest rivarly in world rugby. And I see now that the throat slitting has been cut out.
That is disgraceful.
50,000 rugby mad (and when I say mad, you have no idea) fans singing while the haka is being performed is not. That is SA rugby fans getting behind our boys, wishing that they could be on that field facing that awesome spectacle.
June 28th 2007 @ 8:29pm
Dave74 said | June 28th 2007 @ 8:29pm | Report comment
I agree with WLN on facing the haka. Get the players out of their tracksuits before they run out onto the field, it will give them a chance to acclimatise to the weather during the anthems. Does anyone else remember the 1992 Bledisloe series when the Wallabies walked up to the ABs whilst they were doing the Haka and looked them in the eye (Sam Scott-Young took it a little too far by mocking them by laughing though) or the Springbok game a few years back where the ‘boks linked arms and walked up to the ABs whilst they were doing the Haka? Rather than just let the Haka rev up the ABs, let its passion stir up the Wallabies as well as they face it down. Get the players into the frame of mind that test rugby against teir one nations is trench warfare, our players have become too soft in recent years.
June 29th 2007 @ 12:16am
sheek said | June 29th 2007 @ 12:16am | Report comment
John Williamson singing Waltzing Matilda was great the first two or three times it was performed. But for me it quickly lost its zing.
Also, far be it for me to disagree with MacQueen, but I reckon the Wallabies should run out onto the field stripped & ready to play. If it’s a cold day & they’re miserable, all the better – it will want to make them get into the game as quickly as possible.
MacQueen’s reasoning behind wearing tracksuits, was an opportunity for the players to strip down & refocus after the Haka. However, it also became apparent that the Wallabies were so sedated at the start of some games, they usually gave up a significant early lead.
I would rather have Jimmy Barnes belt out Khe Sanh. And the Wallabies run out stripped ready to play. If its freezing cold, all the better. They’ll want to get into the action as quickly as possible.
I also think far to much is made of the Haka. It should be accepted for what it is – a challenge to battle.
Anyway, has anybody thought of the pressure on the ABs to perform the Haka to the best of their ability? They have enough to worry about without the added pressure of getting the Haka right. Imagine the embarassment, if one or more players fluffed their lines or movements.
June 29th 2007 @ 12:58am
Michael Sinclair said | June 29th 2007 @ 12:58am | Report comment
Siro, Farmer and all,
Waltzing Matilda is at least a good sing-along song, you can get into. I remember the late Ron Jardin –who was not short of ego –saying that when he ran out onto Cardiff Arms Park with 50,000 Welshmen all singing together, he felt the grass came up to his eyeballs. That’s a worthy effect.
Good Save the Queen puerile? What about the line in one of the verses that says “Confound her knavish foes”? Put that in the first verse and maybe an English crown could get into even that.
Wouldn’t you like to hear a Kiwi crowd join in the haka?
Mike (ex-pat Kiwi)
June 29th 2007 @ 1:09am
DaniE said | June 29th 2007 @ 1:09am | Report comment
^^ Can you remember seeing the haka from say, the 80s or early 90s? Some of the players looked so uncoordinated, their performances were somewhat comedic. Now that the haka is performed well, it is a much better spectacle and I think more effective.
On the subject of songs, has anyone heard the Australian contributions to a couple of the RWC cds? Especially the 1995 cd… the version of Waltzing Matilda it is so schmaltzy and Doug Parkinson’s ‘Run Wallaby Run’ so funny everytime we listen to them we fall cringe laughing. “We won this cup we ain’t giving it up! Run, Wallaby Run!”
Of course, nothing beats the hoary old tune “Drums of Ballymore”, played before the 1993 Wallabies-Springboks test. “See the drums… hear them roar… there is no o-o-o-therr… Ballymore” performed in true early 90s fashion, including a guy with an electric keyboard around his neck. Wonder why that song didn’t take off amongst the QLD rugby public?
June 29th 2007 @ 9:53am
Bob Thomas said | June 29th 2007 @ 9:53am | Report comment
A lot of what we don’t do in the Wallaby’s (Waratahs too) is get ourselves mentally into a position to win. This has been a problem for a while -note Gregans statement a few years ago that they dont need passion to play well they are professional or some such bullshit.
Coaches need to get players ‘up’ to go out there and face a battle and possibly get injured. It is a war and it is won in the head and heart as well as on the training paddock. Rod McQueen did everything he could to make them successful before the game and understood the need to get the approach right, Eddie didnt believe in any of that and certainly could wind up a clock, John Connoly seems to be able to get them going it’s his coaching and selections that worry me.
Waltzing Matilda, whilst I believe it would have made a better anthem that Advance etc, is not a motivational tool. We would be better off with Land Down Under. But why stick to a single tune mix it up so the crowd doesnt get bored a medley would be fine. Also quotes from Australian greats about what it means to play for your country and played to the crowd will stir them up and possibly stir the players as well except George of course he’s professional.
June 29th 2007 @ 10:32am
David Lewis said | June 29th 2007 @ 10:32am | Report comment
Just on the comment about the throat-slitting being excised from Kapa O Pango, the new AB haka, it is still there, but has been toned down, so it’s more a slice across the top of the chest.
For those who enjoy that new haka, I’d recommend a visit to the Gisborne region in NZ. If you can chance on visiting a marae, you might find very similar haka being performed. If the ABs’ rendition gives you a tingle, then you’ll experience something else.
As for Mr Williamson’s song, the first couple of times it seeme to help lift the Wallabies, but it’s hard to create tradition – which is what the haka is – and it soon lost impact and became a bit of a yawn. I think the Wallabies’ recent woes have more to do with the absences of Eales, Horan, a decent front row, and Matt Burke (who seemed to play 20 percent better against the ABs) than Mr Williamson.
June 29th 2007 @ 11:51am
Sam Taulelei said | June 29th 2007 @ 11:51am | Report comment
As a born and bred Kiwi of Samoan descent living in Melbourne I find it odd to read comments about the disrespect shown to the haka when the All Blacks perform it.
The true essence and meaning of any haka is that it is a challenge both physically and spiritually to an opponent. How you choose to face and respond to it isn’t written down in any rules, protocols or etiquette, it’s a personal choice.
So if the crowd want to sing a song, chant, or respond with their own war dance it is their prerogative and right.
Personally I think Kiwi’s are getting overly precious about how respect should be paid to the performance of the haka and I believe that the respect has already been shown by allowing it to be performed in the first place. Historically the haka hasn’t always been performed by the All Blacks and previously only when they toured, it was a crowd pleasing gesture and became synonymous with All Black rugby. Buck Shelford restored the mana of the haka when he taught his team how it should be performed and since then it has been the subject of much debate and controversy as it changed from a PR gesture to it’s true meaning and intent.
There is no doubt that it gives the All Blacks an adrenaline boost before kickoff but that advantage can be quickly negated by how well their opponents play from the kickoff. It’s just a bit of mind games and doesn’t influence the result and I certainly don’t recall any complaints when the Wallabies were winning most of their games or when they faced the Manu Samoa, Fijian and Tongan war dances.
Waltzing Matilda has a special place in Australian culture and history as does the haka in New Zealand’s culture. Neither of them are any worse or better than the other and should be expressed with pride. They are both recognised as national icons both here and internationally and if John Williams is back to sing it, I only hope that it’s sung uptempo and not as some funereal dirge.
June 29th 2007 @ 10:51pm
Joshua Carmody said | June 29th 2007 @ 10:51pm | Report comment
Sam Taulelei – excellent points mate
Colin – you say Waltzing Matilda is a song about a coward. Right. You obviously know your history. You obviously know a lot about the Australian psyche, particularly as it was forged during the depression of the 1890’s? In this historical context, it is stirring stuff, Colin. The swagman had to walk, often without food or saddle, to remote sheep stations to find work. The swagmen were often individuals who loved the freedom of roaming under the Australian sky. And yes, some of them were ‘thieves’ – a harsh label for those who would have starved otherwise. They certainly didn’t like the authorities, as the police at times acted as thuggish security for so called free-settlers, who were themselves illegally sanctioned by the government. That is, the settlers stole from the Aborigines. The swagmen were unromantic underdogs- their lifestyle humble, dirty and difficult – some of them were Irish, and Welsh, and therefore predisposed to disliking British serving authorities. Others, however, were Aborigines, Asians, Islanders etc and therefore on the lowest wrung of the ladder. The fact that the swagman in the song takes his own life rather than suffer the wretched conditions of a confined gaol presided over by corrupt and brutal police says loads about the psychological forces at play. I’d hardly call him a coward. Those young Aborigines hanging themselves in our modern jails are aptly expressed by the song, in fact.
Michael – let’s not get personal about John Williamson. I am definitely not a great fan of his music and wouldn’t for the life of me buy a CD, but I think he does a great job of Waltzing Matilda. And your other point? ‘Let’s respect the haka’. Yes, Michael, let’s respect it, but let’s not be servile, slump shouldered acolytes of all things Maori either. It’s not surprising that when the AB’s are winning, some (definitely not all) New Zealanders demand an almost totalitarian meekness to their great tradition. It is a great tradition. No doubt about it. However, it is interesting to note that the so called ‘throat slitting’ haka can’t be called ‘traditional’, at least in the sense of AB pre-match ritual. It is also worth noting that a large dose of criticism of that particular haka came from within New Zealand, particularly in light of the suicidal nature of jihad attacks sweeping the world at the time. There’s no doubt the new haka ends in an over the top manner not really suited to a game of rugby.
There’s one more point about the haka which needs addressing; that it demonstrates, without equivocation, the AB’s respect for the opposition. Really? Which AB’s? That the half-wit Byron Kelleher respects Australia? That Tony Woodcock and Carl Hayman respect our front row? Did Richard Loe respect Paul Carozza? Did they respect him, or the Australians, when they refused to apologize for a brutal piece of cowardly violence? Things are not so black and white in the world of rugby and nations. I do like the Haka. It is a spectacle. But I won’t be licking their expletive boots, buddy.
And to this end, if I decide to take of my tracksuit after watching their war dance to take some steam out of their emotional momentum, I’d feel I’d be making an assertive point. Not everything is about the AB’s. The Wallabies don’t walk to the beat of the AB drum.
Given all these points, how do we define tradition? The argument that Waltzing Matilda is an introduced (nay, artificial?) tradition doesn’t bother me at all. Traditions are introduced, you Bunyips. Whether we, as Australians, accept Waltzing Matilda as the conduit of our national pride is perhaps beside the point. That we have enacted the singing an Australian folk song before rugby test matches paves the way for a tradition of singing, and that can only be good for the spirit of Australian rugby.