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Wales Online
Wales Online
Sport
Dylan James

'Captain, captain!' Ref struggles to end stand-off as 1.5m watch in 24 hours

An intense haka stand off between New Zealand and France has gone completely viral on social media.

The moment occurred in an under 20s match at the World Rugby championships, and you could have cut the tension with a knife.

The Kiwis performed the Ka Mate war dance as usual, but the French players stood their ground hand-in-hand. Neither side moved a muscle for 80 seconds.

It was a referee's worst nightmare as Mike Adamson tried desperately to get the game started: "OK lads, are we good to go?" he asked the New Zealanders.

There are shades of Wales' iconic Haka stand-off in Cardiff that occurred back in 2008.

Adamson then approached France captain Florian Verhaeghe: "Captain, can you get your team ready for kick-off", but it was as if the official wasn't there. Further pleas of "Captain, captain" fell on deaf ears.

Eventually the teams got the game going and the Baby Blacks went on the annihilate France in the first half, leading 36-0 after the first 40 minutes.

The French did fight back in the second half, but to no avail. The scores finished 39-26 to the New Zealanders.

You can watch the stand off below.

The video has been viewed a whopping 1.6 million times in less than 24 hours.

The young New Zealand team featured the likes of Caleb Clarke, Dalton Papali'i, Will Jordan and Braydon Ennor, who are now Test match All Blacks.

The youngsters went on to smash England 64-17 in the final securing the 2017 under 20s World Championships.

This year's Under-20 World Championships starts this weekend in South Africa, with Wales facing New Zealand.

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