New Zealand will face South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final held in France on Saturday, October 28. There haven’t always been All Blacks in its history. If the “Kiwis”, the nickname for the New Zealanders, play all black today, they were All Black when the team was founded in 1892.They wore the color that dominates the New Zealand flag: dark blue. But they were not given the nickname All Blue. No, their nickname is “Originals”Originals.
They turned black thanks to the team captain, Thomas Rangiwahia Ellison, the first Maori in New Zealand history to become a lawyer. He has been an excellent advocate ever since he won the match by asking for the jersey to be changed to black on the occasion of the first tour of the Kiwi XV in 1893.
Many believe that this black jersey is to mourn the loss of their rivals.. This fits somewhat with the warrior image of the haka. But actually not at all! Among the Maori, black symbolizes wisdom, stability, and also life, fertility; because for them the World was born from darkness. Ellison’s question is also for symbolic reasons. A silver fern adorns this jersey.
This fern is endemic, meaning it is found only in New Zealand. For the Maori, it symbolizes energy, healing and warding off evil forces.. It is also at the heart of the local version of Petit Poucet. A young girl named Ti Ara is kidnapped by a rival tribe. She plants ferns, the leaves of which she folds to emphasize their silvery sides, so that her husband Rahi can find and rescue her.
On the other hand, they did not immediately earn the nickname All Blacks by adopting this black jersey.. We had to wait 12 years. The name first appeared in the British press in 1905 during an English tour of the New Zealand XV. And legend has it that this was actually the result of a printing error.
Indeed, a journalist who saw them play daily mail He found them so quick and dexterous that he wrote: all fifteen Kiwis played as full-backs. This is called “back” in English. So “they are all back”.
The man at the printing house must not have known much about rugby, and the journalist who saw the photo of these players in black wanted to write “black” rather than “back”. He corrected himself by creating without realizing it, Today, this term “All Blacks” has been a registered trademark since 1991 and is worth 1.8 billion euros.. And this 1.8 billion euros is not a small amount!
