Captain Richie McCaw said the All Blacks were offended at not being allowed to perform their pre-match haka in front of Wales before notching a record win at Millennium Stadium on Saturday.
The Welsh Rugby Union said it warned New Zealand six weeks ago that the haka _ the Maori challenge the All Blacks have been performing for more than a century _ could be done between the two national anthems.
The All Blacks tried until the last minute to change the program so they could do the haka, as usual, after the anthems and before the kickoff.
But when the WRU wouldn't relent, the team did it in their changing room.
``It just fired up the boys,'' McCaw said after New Zealand's 45-10 victory to end their successful rugby tour of Europe.
The Welsh crowd, unaware of the dispute, jeered the All Blacks for not doing the haka on the field.
``The tradition needs to be honoured properly if we're going to do it,'' McCaw said. ``If the other team wants to mess around, we'll just do the haka in the shed. At the end of the day, haka is about spiritual preparation and we do it for ourselves.''
Wales made the same request last year, and New Zealand said it agreed to it only because it was the centenary of matches between the nations.
``It's a 100-year-old tradition that the haka is done before kickoff,'' New Zealand coach Graham Henry said. ``We agreed to the change last year but we had a guarantee it wouldn't happen again. But they (the WRU) asked us to do the same this year and we said no.''
WRU chief executive Roger Lewis said they were respecting the tradition of the haka, as a challenge worthy of a formal response, in the form of the Welsh anthem.
He said Maori chiefs advised the WRU that it was appropriate, on home ground, to respond to the haka.
``There was no disrespect intended on anyone's part, either on the part of the New Zealanders by not doing the haka or by us for offering to respond,'' Lewis said.
He added the WRU will take up the issue with the International Rugby Board, as the haka and other similar challenges by the Pacific Island teams were not part of pre-match rules.
