14 tests, 1120 minutes, 49 tries, 27 lineouts lost ... but fans might think the key statistic is four - the number of defeats in Scott Robertson’s debut season. Cameron McMillan breaks down the All Blacks’ 2024 season and the key statistics that jump out.
All Blacks’ 2024 season: Breaking down the key numbers from Scott Robertson’s first season
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All Blacks fullback Will Jordan celebrates scoring a try against Ireland at Aviva Stadium. Photo / Getty Images
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Ardie Savea is a workhorse. If that is what you can get out of a player who skipped Super Rugby then maybe we, gulp, scrap Super Rugby Pacific. Sam Cane just finished his 12-year career where he played roughly 5948 minutes in 104 tests. Savea knocked off 17% of that number in one season.
The only time Savea didn’t play the full test was against Fiji, while the Japan test was the only one he missed. He finished the season with 132 tackles. Scott Barrett was next with 127 for the season.
Damian McKenzie, Anton Lienert-Brown and Asafo Aumua were the only players to feature in all 14 tests. Lienert-Brown has played 24 straight tests for the All Blacks going back to the Melbourne test against the Wallabies last July (almost as impressive as Tom Latham’s active streak of 86 straight cricket tests).
In his maiden season as coach, Robertson and his selectors picked 42 players, with 10 making their debuts.
One of my favourite stats of the year was Cane finally getting a win over England, the only major test nation he hadn’t previously beaten.
The All Blacks converted 12 penalties in 13 tests last year. Seems like Razor lives by the “always kick your threes” mantra. Interestingly before this season, McKenzie had only kicked two penalties in tests (the same as Israel Dagg). But passed by Jordie Barrett, Fergie McCormick, Kieran Crowley, Stephen Donald, Luke McAlister and Tony Brown on the penalties all-time list for New Zealand.
McKenzie’s 26 penalties in a season is the most since Dan Carter’s 26 in 2015.
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McKenzie is now seventh on the All Blacks all-time list for points scorers with 311, 11 points behind Aaron Cruden.
Meanwhile, 23 of the 42 All Blacks crossed over for a try.
Rieko Ioane scored only one try but kept his run of crossing the line every season since his debut in 2016.
Ioane sits on 37 test tries, one behind Will Jordan who now has 38 from 41 tests, which remains the highest ratio of the top try scorers in All Blacks history. Beauden Barrett sits fifth all-time on 45, four shy of Doug Howlett’s record.
Discipline
An interesting work-on for Robertson over the off-season is discipline. The All Blacks were penalised less than the opposition across the 14 tests, however, had an overwhelming number of cards in comparison.
6-31
All Blacks scoreline while down a player in 2024
14-5
All Blacks scoreline while up a player in 2024
The most costly of which was losing Ofa Tuʻungafasi in the 68th minute of the Ellis Park defeat. No shots fired at the veteran prop who had a standout season off the bench but the All Blacks were up 27-17 when he left the field and went on to lose 34-27.
In the Sydney test, the All Blacks were up 31-14 when Australia scored, after which Lienert-Brown was handed a yellow card. Seven minutes later Caleb Clark also left the field for an intentional knock-on. Lienert-Brown returned but the Wallabies scored again to close the gap but the All Blacks held on for a 31-28 win.
The All Blacks started the season without a card in their first four tests, before finishing with 11 in the final 10.
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Points breakdown
The other worrying aspect of the season for Robertson is how the All Blacks began the second half of tests.
Much was made of the final 20 midway throughout the season (when they scored one try in five tests) but the third quarter was easily their weakest across the year. It almost cost them the test at Twickenham (outscored 10-0) and a major part of their defeat two weeks later in Paris (17-3 to France).
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All Blacks' points difference in the third quarter
In terms of points differential, the All Blacks outscored their opponents by 138 in the first half but that dropped to 23 in the second half.
They outscored their opponents the most during the second quarter of tests.
The All Blacks also opened the scoring in their first eight test matches, but then their opponents scored the first points in their final six tests of 2024.
Key statistics
Some other statistics of note. The All Blacks completed 87.6% of their tackles, slightly higher than last season, while their opponents were down at 83%.
At lineout time, the All Blacks won 86% of their throws while the opposition were at 84.5%. They averaged 13.8 kicks in play a test compared to the opposition’s 12.7.
The All Blacks had a season-high 23 turnovers against England, a test they won, and a season-low of 8 against Argentina in Wellington, a test they lost.
