All Black fan Tim Cronin from RugbyShirts.net wonders how the current side stacks up against previous ones…
Leading in to Saturday’s ‘Dead-rubber’ match against the Wallabies, talk was rife amongst rugby fans and commentators, striving to determine where this current All Blacks side ranked amongst history’s greatest sides.
The draw with the Wallabies denied Richie McCaw’s men the chance to grab a world record for consecutive test match victories, but, despite that bumbling performance, I think it’s fair to say they have dominated world rugby for the last couple of years. So how do I think they compare to other great New Zealand sides?
To be honest, as much as I love speculating on ‘Best Ever XVs’, I believe that comparing sides from vastly different eras is a fairly pointless exercise. The game as we know it today is far, far different from that of the ‘30s of ‘40s, for example, while professionalism has taken the levels of fitness and strength of the players themselves to a whole new level. As much as the New Zealand rugby public revere an All Black legend like Colin Meads, the fact of the matter is that if he jumped in a time machine from his King Country farm in the mid 1950’s and ended up at Eden Park lining up in the World Cup final in 2011, he would be well out of his depth, so, for the purposes of this article I’ve really only compared this crop of players to other sides in the professional era.
In my mind, the most well-rounded side the All Blacks have fielded in the professional era was the very first one that graced this age. Designed by Laurie Mains to contest the ’95 World Cup, and then inherited by John Hart, that side had very few weak points – a front row that included Olo Brown, Sean Fitzpatrick and Craig Dowd, Ian Jones and Robin Brooke locking the scrum, and three of New Zealand’s finest-ever loose forwards, in Josh Kronfeld, Michael Jones, and Zinzan Brooke. Then in the backs we saw the start of the Marshall and Merhtens combination, Little and Bunce in the midfield, and a back three comprising some of the finest game-breakers in the history of the sport – Jonah Lomu, Jeff Wilson and Christian Cullen.
Other than Walter Little and Craig Dowd, I’d be happy with that side representing New Zealand any day of the week. Today’s team has already accomplished more than that side, but I think a lot of that comes down to individual brilliance, rather than the fact that they are a truly great ‘team’.
In Dan Carter and Richie McCaw the current side benefits from having two all time greats in their ranks. Of course, there are plenty of other extremely talented footballers in the current side, including Conrad Smith and Kieran Read, but I think without McCaw and Carter this team would not have enjoyed such dominance on the world stage.
This is a very good All Black side, of that there can be no question. But I think there are too many weak points at the moment, too many positions up for grabs, to consider it perfectly well-rounded. Since the departure of Jerome Kaino no one has managed to make the number 6 jersey their own, a lack of depth at hooker has meant the NZRFU has had to desperately cling to veterans Keven Mealamu and Andrew Hore, and the wing spots have also seen plenty of different players donning the black jersey. On an individual level though, McCaw will go down as New Zealand’s finest ever openside flanker, and captain, while Carter’s status as the best 10 we’ve ever seen is set in concrete.
Tim Cronin is a Rugby fan and full time writer based in the rubble of the Canterbury Crusaders’ home town, Christchurch. Tim is a part of the Pukeko Sportsteam, where his role is watching, writing, and complaining about all things rugby.
