Originally Posted by
fulvio sammut
You may be thinking of Rick Smith, a Kiwi playing for WA against the All Blacks, who faced up to their challenge (the haka) in the culturally appropriate manner.
Smith was lambasted by the local media at the time for doing so, but he was a student of Maori culture, and had been steeped in it himself and knew what he was doing, and, if I recollect correctly, he was defended by the NZ Maori community here, and also by experts in Maori culture elsewhere.
He had the last laugh, becoming an overnight celebrity in the rugby world a la Andy Warhol, went on from practicing law to becoming CEO of the WARU, a senior official of the WA Sports Commission, CEO of Basketball WA, and President of Palmyra Rugby Club.
A pretty good fullback in his day too.