page_title: Ka Mate
section_title: Use in rugby
hierarchical_section_title: Ka Mate / Use in rugby
caption_attribution_description: RLWC 2008 - England v New Zealand at Newcastle. Adam Blair and Issac Luke perform the Haka.
context_page_description: "Ka Mate" is a Māori haka composed by Te Rauparaha, war leader of the Ngāti Toa tribe of the North Island of New Zealand.
context_section_description: "Ka Mate" is the most widely known haka in New Zealand and internationally because a choreographed and synchronized version of the chant has traditionally been performed by the All Blacks, New Zealand's international rugby union team, as well as the Kiwis, New Zealand's international rugby league team, immediately prior to test (international) matches. Since 2005 the All Blacks have occasionally performed another haka, "Kapa o Pango". Since the introduction of "Kapa o Pango" the longest sequence of "Ka Mate" performances by the All Blacks is nine, which occurred between 22 August 2009 and 12 June 2010.
  
  In an interview with ESPN shortly before the 2019 Rugby World Cup, All Blacks scrum-half TJ Perenara, the team's designated haka leader at the time and a Māori who was raised in the region where Te Rauparaha lived, explained the process of selecting which haka will be performed before a given match:
  There's Ka Mate and there's Kapa O Pango. When we're in Wellington we perform Ka Mate, we're paying respects to Te Rauparaha and the lands that he walked on. And then outside of that Reado [captain Kieran Read] and myself will usually talk [on match eve] or earlier in the week about what we'll do; what haka we'll do for that week. And it's usually just a vibe thing; how we feel; how we feel like our footy's going and who we're playing against. There's no massive reason for doing either one except for when we're in Wellington we always do Ka Mate.
caption: Isaac Luke and Adam Blair of the New Zealand national rugby league team performing "Ka Mate"
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