Kapa o Pango

Kapa o Pango is a pre-match haka, or challenge, composed by Derek Lardelli, which is unique to the New Zealand national rugby union team, the All Blacks. Since 2005, the "Kapa o Pango" haka has been performed a total of 98 times before rugby test matches by the All Blacks as an alternative to the usual "Ka Mate" haka. "Kapa o Pango" is a Māori phrase which translates to "Team in Black" in English. In all the eleven tests against an international rugby team "Kapa o Pango" has been performed for the first time the All Blacks have gone on to win the match. Only five sides have ever beaten the All Blacks in a match in which "Kapa o Pango" occurred. They are: South Africa (2006), Australia (2007), England (2012), Ireland (2016) and France (2023). The year in brackets is the first time a loss occurred against this team with this version of the haka. When "Kapa o Pango" has been performed the All Blacks have won 75 tests, lost 20 tests and have drawn three times. The biggest winning margin to the All Blacks for a test involving the "Kapa o Pango" haka was 57 points and occurred on 16 September 2017 against South Africa at North Harbour Stadium Albany, Auckland, New Zealand where the score was 57–0. The biggest losing margin involving the All Blacks for a test with the "Kapa o Pango" haka is 28 points which occurred in a test against South Africa at Twickenham Stadium on 25 August 2023, final score 35–7.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Kapa o Pango”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

Kapa o Pango is prematch haka or challenge unique to the New Zealand national rugby union team, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶