The words of the haka are printed in full in The Triumphant Tour! : the All Blacks in England, Ireland and Wales, 1924-1925, a collection of newspaper reports of each game, published in 1925. The words there are rather mangled, like "Katu te ihi i hi" (sic).

The reports of the early games begin with a description of the playing of the National Anthem and the "weird war cry of the visitors." But this rapidly changes to the "ever-famous war cry of the visitors."

The team had reached the north of England by their 11th game where Yorkshire's 'Football Argus' dismissively described how "The Colonials dispensed with their cry and won the toss" before their team was beaten 42 to 4.

Before the 13th game at Carlisle, "they lined up in front of the stand and led by a young Maori, G. Nepia, gave their song and dance, which was received with loud cheers and laughter." They then beat Cumberland 41-nil.

The Oxford Chronicle's erudite report of their 19th game tells how "they formed in a line down the centre of the field with Nepia a few paces in front of them grinning broadly and leading them in strange convulsive movements and the weirdest of weird cries (the Black Watch sword dancers were not in it)." A splendid fight, 33 points to 15.

Back in Wales at Llanelly for game 22, "On the appearance of the men in red, "Sosban Fach" was sung with great enthusiasm. Nepia led the All Blacks in their famous war dance, which was very impressive. One could almost hear a pin drop while it was rendered. The crowd again sang 'Sosban Fach' in reply." New Zealand was lucky to beat the Sospans 8 - 3.

The report of the 28th and final British Test Match at Twickenham omits any description of the haka, instead leading with the sending off of C F Brownlee seven minutes into the match, for returning a punch from an English player, giving fourteen New Zealanders the opportunity beat fifteen Englishmen 17 - 11, with the aid of a sympathetic New Zealand line umpire.

The first section of Ko Niu Tireni uses traditional imagery from Ruaumoko. This compares the unrestrained creative force of an erupting volcano with the similar unrestrained force of human sexuality to create new life. And in All Black rugby a similar eruptive force is unleashed (except in World Cup competitions).

It is of interest that the Llanelly rugby players used similar imagery in their Sosban Fach rallying song, with passion expressed by saucepans boiling over instead of erupting volcanos.