Why wasn’t the New Zealand rugby team always an All Blacks team?
On Saturday, October 28, New Zealand will face South Africa in the final of the Rugby World Cup held in France. In their history, the All Blacks have not always been the team. If the “Kiwis”, as New Zealanders are nicknamed, play black today, they were all black when the team was created in 1892.They wore the color that dominates the New Zealand flag, which is dark blue. But they weren’t called All Blue. No, their nickname was “”“Originals”original copies.
They turned black thanks to the team leader, Thomas Rangioahia EllisonThe first Maori in New Zealand’s history to become a lawyer. An excellent lawyer since he obtained, through pleading, the change of shirt to black in 1893 on the occasion of the first tour of the Kiwi XV.
Many believe that this black shirt is mourning for their opponents. This fits a bit with the image of the Hakka warrior. But in reality, not at all! Among the Maori, the color black symbolizes wisdom and fortitude but also life and fertility, because for them the earth is born from darkness. Ellison also wonders about symbolic reasons That silver fern adorns this shirt.
This fern is endemic, meaning it is only found in New Zealand. For Maori, it symbolizes energy, heals and drives away evil forces.. It is also at the heart of the local version of Petit Poucet. A young girl, T-Ara, is kidnapped by a rival tribe. So that her husband, Rahi, can find and rescue her, she plants a fern whose leaves fold over to reveal their silvery side.
On the other hand, they did not immediately earn the All Blacks title by adopting this black jersey. We had to wait 12 years. It was precisely in 1905 that this name first appeared in the English press during a British tour of New Zealand XV. According to legend, it was actually the result of a typographical error.
Indeed, seeing them play, he is a journalist from daily Mail He found them so quick and clever that he wrote that Fifteen Kiwis all played as full-backs. It is called “return” in English. So they were “all back.”
The man working at the printing press certainly didn’t know much about rugby and when he saw the picture of these players in black, the journalist wanted to write ‘black’ and not ‘back’. He reformed himself with creation without knowing it. The term “All Blacks”, which today has been a registered trademark since 1991 and is worth €1.8 billion.. And this 1.8 billion euros is not a small amount!
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