LONDON (AP) — England prop Joe Marler added spice to the rugby test against New Zealand on Saturday by calling for the All Blacks' famous pre-match haka to be scrapped.
“The haka needs binning. It’s ridiculous," the England prop wrote on the social media platform X about the pre-kickoff ritual.
Marler added that the haka was “only any good when teams actually front it with some sort of reply.”
His posts prompted a backlash and Marler appeared to delete his X account, only for it to resurface on Wednesday.
“Context is everything,” he wrote. “Just having a bit of fun trying to spark interest in a mega rugby fixture. Some wild responses.”
Marler has not been selected for the match at Twickenham, but has been part of the 36-man training squad that is preparing for the test.
In rugby union, regulations prevent opposing teams crossing the halfway line while New Zealand players are performing the haka.
England was fined in 2019 after contravening the rule ahead of the World Cup semifinal, with Marler going across the line as England did a reverse V, as if to hem in the New Zealand players.
AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby
FILE - New Zealand's players perform Haka ahead of the Rugby World Cup Pool A match between New Zealand and Uruguay at the OL Stadium, in Lyon, France, on Oct. 5, 2023. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin, File)
A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.
A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.
Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.
The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.
For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.
The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”
Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.
Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)
