All Blacks: Making history the new priority

This season's goal is to more frequently replicate the outstanding form shown in Johannesburg last year by Beauden Barrett and the rest of the All Blacks. Photo / Getty Images

Lofty All Black aims also have a practical purpose, as style provides substantial benefits, writes Gregor Paul.

The All Blacks have made it their goal to establish themselves as the most dominant team in history.

It's a big, bold, target but management and senior players felt that, having recorded professional rugby's first perfect season last year, they needed to set the benchmark higher again in 2014.

"We know we need to have a lofty aspiration," says head coach Steve Hansen. "It is to try to be the most dominant side in the history of the game. That's not something we believe we are - it's something we are striving for."

Hansen is eager to stress that last point following an incident in London last year when an English journalist 'wandered' into the All Blacks' empty team room and then reported what was written on the whiteboard. The words 'most dominant team in the world' were up there - but not as statement of fact.

Having lost only once in their last 35 tests, this current All Black team have made a significant impact. French coach Philippe St Andre said last year that he thought the All Blacks already were the most dominant side in history.

Hansen doesn't agree. It is an entirely subjective goal with no definitive means of telling whether the All Blacks have achieved it, but Hansen has a few specifics in mind. He has a clear sense that this team have only made a start - that there are at least three major boxes left to be ticked.

"What does that [being the most dominant team in history] look like?There are some obvious outcomes. No one has won more than 17 tests in a row; no one has gone undefeated two years in a row; no one has won back-to-back World Cups. They are obvious goals.

"But for us, it is more the quality of the performance because there is an expectation that we have to win every game anyway - year in, year out, that doesn't change for us.

"We know that when this team has the right challenges in front of it - that they put in front of themselves - then they will make the sacrifices that are needed to go out and perform. What does a quality performance look like? It is striving to do everything as near to perfection as possible and playing a style of game that, to borrow a phrase from soccer, is the 'beautiful game'.

"I think we have a responsibility as a rugby nation to strive for that. How good would it be to do what we did in South Africa [last year's epic 37-28 victory] and have that style of game played week in, week out?"

That question of style is going to be all-important in the next 18 months. The All Blacks don't think about it so much as an obligation to entertain. For them, it's about multiple types of rugby they can play to suit the weather, opposition and occasion.

Hansen has been involved in test rugby in one guise or another since 2002 and he knows how quickly things can change. He knows that the gap between the No 1 side in the world and No 5 is much smaller than it looks.

It wouldn't take much for the All Blacks to be hauled back to reality this year. They have to play a resurgent England four times, an improving Australia three times and an already dangerous South Africa twice.

They all have the All Blacks in their sights. They are all trying to find the right way to play them. New Zealand's advantage, perhaps, is that they already have their vision for the next 18 months; they already know the type of rugby that works for them, which is why Hansen doesn't envisage any radical shift in tactical approach from his side this year.

There will be the usual fine-tuning and subtle differences but the emphasis will be on perfecting rather then reinventing.

"We have to look at our aspiration and say there is no shying away now . . . the World Cup is 18months away, so what type of game do we want to be playing there? I don't think you will see us add a lot of new stuff because we have added a lot in the last two years.

"We have played around with it. We know we have got some game structures that work for us. We know we have got some skill sets that work for us. What we have to do in the next 18 months is hone those skills to perfection.

"We need to deliver those game structures as well as we possibly can and that will enhance our quality of performance and that will make us difficult to beat because we have a lot of talent. If we turn up mentally ready to play . . . then we are a difficult side to beat."

The All Blacks like to pose what they call a triple threat. It was a phrase they hit on last year as they looked to develop a running game, a passing game and a kick-chase game.

They weren't wed to one idea - in the second test against France, they relied on their kick-chase game for 65 minutes to frustrate and subdue the French and then used their passing and running game to finish them off.

At Ellis Park, it was almost exclusively their running game in operation. It's about having options and then knowing which ones to use, which is why Hansen doesn't feel like he needs to head into theWorld Cup with a fixed notion of how the All Blacks will play.

"We know that World Cups haven't been razzle-dazzle affairs from quarter-finals on," he says. "We genuinely believe if we can perfect our game and get a quality of performance right across the board in all the things we are trying to do, then we will have enough tools in the tool box to be really competitive.

"People haven't won back-to-back World Cups for a reason and a lot of that is mental. Mental fortitude hasn't been right. Look at our 2007 side . . . we didn't go there to take that World Cup by the scruff of the neck. I think we went there expecting to take it by the scruff of the neck - and there is a massive difference.

"In 2011, I think that All Black group would have done whatever was needed because they were so desperate to win it. We can't hide from the fact that we have got a World Cup in the cabinet and we can't allow that to get in the way of trying to take another one.

"Because we have been the No 1 side in the world doesn't give us the right to rock up and think it is going to happen - because we know that's not how it works."