The proposal came after she had returned to New York from New Zealand, thinking she had flunked her Breakfast audition (she hadn’t).

I was so happy, it was an immediate yes,” Burns-Francis told Woman’s Day earlier this year. “At first, I was like, ‘What are you doing? We’re in a helicopter!’ But then I saw the ring and realised he was serious. Burns-Francis was TVNZ’s correspondent in the Big Apple at the time. Gordon proposed to Burns-Francis in a sightseeing helicopter above New York last year. Simon Gordon pulled out a diamond ring on a helicopter flight over New York and asked Anna Burns-Francis to marry him. A combination of the yellow card and the gesture saw him suspended for one game. Usually, that’s out of character for me, so I put my hand up first and I apologise for that.” “Kids are watching us, we’re in the heat of the moment. “I can understand the fans are furious around the gesture that I made,” he said immediately following the match. That, of course, is exactly what happened in Super Rugby this year, when Hurricanes and All Blacks star Ardie Savea was yellow-carded and irked, leading him to make a throat-slitting gesture at an opposition player as he was leaving the field. I think it’s jarring before a rugby match.”įitzSimons’ comment follows similar views from fellow Australian scribbler Paul Sheehan who wrote in 2011, “the violence suggested by throat-slitting gestures has no place in sport or sportsmanship, especially in the national colours”.Īnd in 2005, Daily Telegraph UK columnist Mick Cleary described it as “menacing” and “unmistakably provocative” – while it might have an innocent meaning, he said, it did the All Blacks no favours.Ĭleary noted, presciently, that if any player performed the same gesture in the field of play, they’d face disciplinary action. He was the one I believe was responsible for breathing life into the haka in the mid-80s and for me is the arbiter. “Buck was the hardest rugby player I ever played against. “I remember being heartened at the time to receive support from the great Buck Shelford and Zinzan Brooke. “I wrote at the Herald at the time for me what appeared to be a throat-slitting gesture before a rugby match was jarring in an otherwise magnificent haka. He remembers writing about the throat-slitting gesture when it was introduced. for me it was an honour to face the haka.

“When I played, I didn’t like Campo going down the other end of the field.

“And I also would claim to be the loudest voice in Australia saying that the haka should be treated with respect. “I deeply respect Māori and Pasifika culture,” he said. In my view, the throat slitting gesture at the end, before a rugby match, goes too far.īut captain placing boomerang, later accepted by All Blacks captain, great! - Peter FitzSimons #YES July 30, 2023įitzSimons told Media Insider he was a huge fan of the haka. Magnificent haka, as ever, by All Blacks - with a qualification. Last year, for instance, it was performed only once in more than a dozen tests.īut the players have occasionally returned to the throat gesture – most notably this year, in the two most recent Rugby Championship tests, against South Africa in Auckland and against Australia in Melbourne last weekend. The issue has died away in more recent times, partly because of that change and partly because the All Blacks have not performed Kapa o Pango as regularly. Nevertheless, after the 2006 review, the All Blacks eventually changed the gesture – instead of moving their thumbs across their throats, they started drawing their right hands across their torsos from the left hip to the right shoulder. The gesture has a vastly more innocent and less threatening meaning within Māori culture: Derek Lardelli, who composed Kapa o Pango, has said it represents ‘hauora’ – “drawing vital energy into the heart and lungs”. The issue has flared up occasionally over the years – mainly driven by overseas sports columnists, although New Zealand Rugby did carry out a review in 2006, a year after Kapa o Pango was introduced, following complaints from members of the public. The All Blacks are back performing the throat-slitting-like gesture at the end of the Kapa o Pango haka, and, with it, there’s a renewed debate over its suitability – partly sparked by a high-profile Australian columnist. Top Aussie writer throws spotlight on haka ‘Alarming’ - publishers fume over National’s Meta/Google comments TVNZ Breakfast host weds Sports writer dies at 60 William Shatner’s message to the advertising industry.

But thats none of my business kermit